The suddenly-old-school Cole Hamels figures to take a chance at the open market this winter as the struggling Phillies decide what the future of their aging ballclub will look like. There are already talks of Hamels and fellow free-agent-to-be Shane Victorino being shopped by Philadelphia to avoid just draft-pick compensation for their departures.
As a top-5 lefty in the game, Hamels figures to chase a contract in the neighborhood of 8 years, $160M, nearing CC Sabathia for the largest contract for a pitcher in baseball history. Obviously that could become an Zito-esque albatross as quickly as you can say "shoulder soreness". Still, the shot at having a Hamels-Garza-Samardzija lead to the rotation while not having the pressure to develop a top-of-the-rotation guy from the subpar pitching depth in the Cubs' system would help Theo to build a contender as quickly as 2013.
