The Cubs and Rangers are in agreement on a trade that will send Cole Hamels from Texas to Chicago, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter). Multiple reports had indicated that the two sides were making progress on a deal, as was first indicated by Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports adds the ever-important caveat that the trade is pending medical reviews (Twitter link).
Earlier today, Sherman reported that the Cubs were willing to take on about $4MM of the roughly $14MM still owed to Hamels ($7.98MM of his $22.5MM salary plus at least a $6MM buyout on next season’s $20MM club option). Sherman and others have suggested that Chicago will send lower-level prospects to Texas in return, and The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney had pointed out that Class-A Advanced right-hander Rollie Lacy was scratched from tonight’s start for Chicago’s Myrtle Beach affiliate, though it’s not yet clear if he’s headed to the Rangers as part of the return for Hamels.
The 34-year-old Hamels isn’t the ace that he once was, and he’s had his share of struggles in 2018 — albeit nearly all of them coming at his homer-happy home stadium in Arlington. Hamels is surrendering home runs at a career-worst rate, but it’s somewhat telling that 16 of the 23 round-trippers he’s yielded have come at Globe Life Park. Hamels has a 6.41 ERA, a 6.16 FIP and a 4.49 xFIP when pitching at home this season but a 2.93 ERA, 4.17 FIP and 3.83 xFIP on the road.
Early in the season, there was some concern over a decline in Hamels’ velocity, but he’s regained nearly all of the lost zip on his heater — an encouraging sign for he Cubs, who’ll hope that a move to the National League and a more pitcher-friendly stadium will improve Hamels’ results. Starting pitching wasn’t supposed to be a significant concern for Chicago after spending a combined $164MM to sign right-handers Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood this offseason. Unfortunately for Theo Epstein & Co., Darvish has been hampered by triceps injuries throughout the season, while Chatwood has alarmingly walked more hitters than any pitcher in baseball.
It’s not clear exactly how Hamels will fit into the Chicago rotation, but he’ll surely be guaranteed a starting job. Mike Montgomery has stepped up beautifully with Darvish on the disabled list and may very well have forced Chicago’s hand in keeping him in the rotation. Then again, Montgomery has also been effective as a reliever and could help to strengthen the bullpen if it’s him, not Chatwood, who is dropped to a relief role. Alternatively, the Cubs could simply look to deploy a six-man rotation consisting of Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, Kyle Hendricks, Hamels, Montgomery and Chatwood — though they’d certainly need to shuffle that arrangement when Darvish returns from the disabled list.
