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Arizona Diamondbacks Trade Rumors: In on Cole Hamels?

By Charles Rahrig V |

It’s probably a long shot, but the Arizona Diamondbacks have reportedly expressed interest in Philadelphia Phillies ace Cole Hamels.

The trade deadline is drawing near and teams are preparing to make offers across the leagues either to bring in young future talent or established talent. One of those big ticketed items on the block that teams will be after, is Philadelphia Phillies ace Cole Hamels.

Teams like the Dodgers, Rangers and others have been reported to be interested in adding another front-of-the-line starter to their rotation. However, according to Jerry Crasnick, the Arizona Diamondbacks are another team that could be interested in Hamels.

The Diamondbacks are a team that’s building for the future, so it’s a little surprising that they would be in on the big fish at the trade deadline. The team has however remained competitive, and Tony La Russa has mentioned that they will be buyers at the deadline. That though, was before the team dropped two of three to the Marlins.

While it might be easier for a team like the Dodgers in a big market, who are in contention for a World Series at the moment to land Hamels, it’s going to be a lot harder for Arizona to pull off such a move.

Last week, Guillermo Salcido speculated what it would take to land a guy like Johnny Cueto, who has since been traded to the Kansas City Royals. In his article, he thought it would take to land Cueto, some combination of one of (Owings, Ahmed, Lamb), and one of (Shipley, Blair) plus maybe a few other pieces.

The difference is that Hamels is not a rental, and the price for him would probably be those combinations plus maybe a couple of more top prospects for Philadelphia. Are the Diamondbacks really willing to take a big chunk out of the cupboard of the prospects they’ve been stockpiling?

If that hurdle isn’t big enough, there exists the hurdle of a no-trade list. According to Jayson Stark, the Diamondbacks are indeed one of the team’s on the list for Hamels.

Sure, he could change his mind about going to Arizona, but ultimately it could be another Justin Upton-to-Seattle situation all over again, when the team thought they had a deal worked out with the Mariners, until Upton vetoed it dead.

The odds of a deal happening like this probably aren’t great, but it’s apparent the Diamondbacks are aggressively pursuing an ace pitcher, and this hunt will probably continue into the off-season when discussions will really ramp up.

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