Cole Hamels reflects on failed comebacks and why none of them were with the Phillies
Nearly four years after his last major league appearance, Phillies legend Cole Hamels was honored with a retirement ceremony in front of more than 44,000 fans at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night.
He took the mound with his longtime battery mate Carlos Ruiz behind the plate. With a Phillies jersey on over a dress shirt, Hamels fired a high fastball. The crowd cheered. Hamels was just relieved he didn’t boot it.
His first pitch was met with significantly more fanfare than his last. Hamels’ final game in the majors came on Sept. 16, 2020. He wore Braves navy blue and pitched against the Baltimore Orioles in an empty Camden Yards. Triceps tendinitis pushed his first and only start of the shortened 2020 season back to September, but a bad shoulder ultimately led to that game being his last. He allowed three earned runs over 3 1/3 innings. It could have been four if it wasn’t for a home-run robbing catch by Marcell Ozuna in left field.
A year later, Hamels signed a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers that would guarantee him one million dollars. He could not finish his first and only simulated game at Dodger Stadium. He later underwent surgery on his left shoulder in the offseason.
So, with over $180 million in career earnings in the bank and a successful 15-year run behind him, why did he fight through significant pain for one last chance to pitch?
“I think as an athlete, you never know when your time is up,” Hamels said in a press conference at Citizens Bank Park following the ceremony. “You chase it and you go until you can’t and you don’t want somebody else to tell you. So I think I feel like I left it all out there.”
Hamels estimated his odds of returning to the big leagues after surgery at around one percent. He did not sign with a team in 2022, but latched on with the San Diego Padres on a minor league deal. He hoped for a miracle, but had nothing left to give.
“I appreciate all the effort I put in because it wasn’t easy,” Hamels said. “I know to get to the highest level and maintain the highest level as an athlete, it’s not supposed to be easy. Trying to capture anything I have left, I chased it. And you know what? I’m proud of the time and the effort that I put in there.”
In the 2019-2020 offseason, rumors swirled of a potential reunion between Hamels and the Phillies. Philadelphia needed a starter and what better way for Hamels to finish off his career with one last year in the place where it all began.
In hindsight, both sides are glad it never happened. Hamels’ final season with the Phillies would have been the 2020 COVID year. If he had signed for the $18 million the Braves offered him, he would have made $6.6 million for one start. According to Hamels, a reunion was something he never wanted.
He knew he had a compromised shoulder that would not allow him to reach a level resembling his early-career peak. He left on a high note, pitching a no-hitter against the Cubs in his final start with the Phillies in 2015. He didn’t want to disappoint and be anything less than what he used to be.
“At the time, you know, I kind of understood what was wrong with my shoulder and just trying to buy time, you know, that’s why I signed with a couple of the other teams,” Hamels said. “It’s because they gave me an opportunity that I didn’t have to be the sort of Cole Hamels in Philly. They knew what I could do and it was just to get us through a lineup. Just do these little things.
“In Philly, there was going to be a bigger expectation and I kind of didn’t want to take that. I wanted to go right in the city I’ve done everything for and they’ve done everything for me. You want to give them a good show. You want to be able to win. You want to be able to entertain. If you don’t have 100% everything going, you don’t want to be a letdown.”
Hamels would later call it a career in the summer of 2023. He told Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer that he knew it was over when he couldn’t throw a Wiffle ball at the beach in Ocean City on vacation with his kids during the All-Star break.
But all that time spent rehabbing an impossible injury wasn’t all for nought. He embraced being a sage to the youngest pitchers in the Padres spring training complex. It was the same role Jamie Moyer once occupied as the ageless wonder in the Phillies rotation.
“He moved people’s needles,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said, who worked in player development for San Diego in 2023. “He was a consummate pro. I know he helped elevate and nurture some of the young players that he saw in the complex.”
“It’s a different age,” Hamels said. “There’s a lot of talent out there and they throw really hard. Technology’s definitely taken over, but at the same time, you still have to think and you still have to pitch. There’s still a lot more that’s involved with gut instincts and visually being able to be in the moment that sometimes numbers can’t really help you with.”
Hamels never got to enjoy the ending to a stellar career that he worked for, but he got a taste of it as he stepped to the mound in front of a packed house.
“Definitely got the closure,” Hamels said. “I think this was perfect right here.”
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