New York Yankees rumors: Cole Hamels a trade target?
By Hayden Kane
We sure spend a lot of time solving the Yankees’ problems. Position by position we will go, offering granular analysis of the team’s needs as they emerge and which star players they might pluck from other teams around the league to fill those needs.
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What seems to often get overlooked, however, is what exactly the motivation would be for that team to make the deal other than executing the move that seems logical for the Yankees. That can be an especially baffling question when it comes to guys who are under team control for the foreseeable future, guys like Troy Tulowitzki and Cole Hamels.
Pending an overwhelming trade offer that involves assets that the Yankees do not have, what motivation should those opposing teams have to trade their best players other than the fact that people said they should to fill a hole on the Yankees’ roster?
That brings us to the latest grumblings that involve the Yankees and their holes in the starting rotation. Jon Morosi of Fox Sports points out all the reasons that it would be a perfect fit for the Yankees to trade for Cole Hamels right now:
"Hamels would be a prudent long-term acquisition for the Yankees as they begin planning for a 2015 season that may not include Tanaka or CC Sabathia, who has a career-threatening knee condition. In all likelihood, the Yankees will need to make yet another major pitching investment at some point between now and next Opening Day. It could be wise to do so now, with cost certainty, rather than pay the going rate in free agency for Max Scherzer or Jon Lester."
Yes, that would be wise for the Yankees. Now all they have to do is hypnotize Ruben Amaro Jr. and the rest of the front office and get them to make the deal.
Hamels is due a lot of money in the coming years, sure, and Morosi wonders if the Phillies should ask the Yankees to take on Hamels and another overpriced player to offer “relief on future balance sheets.” But the Phillies have no need for salary relief, especially with a lucrative TV deal on the way. The only incentive they would have to make this deal would be to reload on prospects in a Godfather-type deal. The Yankees do not have the goods to offer anything close to that deal.