The Phillies avoided dealing with arbitration for the next 3 years with Cole Hamels by signing him to a 3-year, $20.5 million deal today.
The Phillies were in no danger of losing Hamels until 2012, but locking him down now does 2 things…
- It locks in his salary, and saves the Phillies the drama of dealing with his arbitration every year. We remember this spring training when he was miffed about missing out on a couple thousand bucks.
- Most importantly, it makes Hamels happy. If he signed this deal, he thought it was fair and that we were treating him with respect. Arbitration can cause some rifts between player and team (see Howard last year) and the Phils now don’t have to worry about it for the next 3 years.
While this deal looks like a steal against some of the FA deals that were signed, it was the highest contract ever given to a pitcher at this stage in his career. Hamels deserves it, and I’m glad the Phillies stepped to the plate and did the right thing here.
However, the one bad thing I see here is that it is ONLY 3 years. When this deal is up, Hamels will be an unrestricted free agent, only 27, and on the open market. At this point, he’s going to likely demand an absurd deal in the 6+ years, $150+ million range. That means this deal might be the last contract he gets from the Phillies, and I was hoping that they would offer him 4-5 years instead of just covering his 3 arbitration years. Who knows what will happen, maybe the Phillies will step to the plate, or Hamels will fall into injury problems, but it’s going to be interesting in 2012.
Howard, Victorino, Werth, Madson, Blanton and Durbin remain for the Phillies in arbitration season.
6.8 for 3 yrs. service of a top-notch pitcher seems baseball-thrifty. Good news for Phils and fans.
After my earlier post I wondered about whose idea the 3-year deal was. Maybe the Phils did want to sign him for 5 years. Maybe Hamels didn’t want to go beyond 3 years because he did not want to give up any of his free agent years.
Whatever the case, I think the positives outweigh the negatives and it is a good deal for the Phils. Who knows what the status of the team will be in 3 years, especially if Howard is gone. It would be great if we could keep Hamels down the road, but for now at least we are locking everything in place and giving ourselves a very good opportunity to continue winning during our “window of opportunity” with the core group we have now.
Pete,
Could you give an estimation on how much Hamels would get in arbitration if say… he was mostly healthy and a top 10 pitcher over the next 3 years? Thanks.
Joe-
Pete,
The numbers say that Hamels won’t likely be the same though right… he had a pretty drastic increase in pitches this year. I believe I remember you posting something about that before. It seems like the Phillies took on the risk that was on Hamels and gained little to nothing IMO… is that unfair to say? Normally you would see a team get 5 years here right? Or just call the players bluff and take him to arbitation year after year.
Also, since he is a super 2, does that mean the Phillies will be able to offer him arbitration following this deal since that will be the 6th year or am I missing something here?
Thanks for the info. I’m a basketball guy more than baseball.
Joe-
It’s a slight risk for both sides, but nothing major. And it garners good will going forward, which will help if we want to sign him in 2011.
I like this…
“We will have another opportunity to have another one of these press conferences in three years,” Phillies assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said.
“I look forward to it,” Hamels said.
“So do we,” Proefrock replied.
also, we are still working on extending Madson
I like everything I read in David Murphy’s article about the Hamels signing. Hopefully both sides are sincere and we will have an ace for years to come.
Just found out that Madson has agreed to a 3-year, $12 mil contract.
And then there were only 5 arbitration eligible players left: Howard, Werth, Victorino, Durbin, and Blanton.
Things are rounding into shape.
bski -
link? ill do a quick post.
The Inquirer’s blog, The Phillies Zone, as reported by Jim Salisbury.