For Phillies, Cole Hamels: Trade is official

Thirteen years after he came to the Phillies as an 18-year-old kid from San Diego with a prized left arm, Cole Hamels arrived at Citizens Bank Park with his two sons, Caleb, 5, and Braxton, 3, by his side.

They watched from the front row Friday afternoon as their father, sporting a plaid blue button-down and the beard he has worn most of the season, attempted to contextualize his time with the only major league baseball organization he had ever known.

"I guess there's a lot to say," he said, "and not enough time."

A 12:01 p.m. news release on Friday cemented what was known since late Wednesday: Hamels, the MVP of a sports-crazed city's only championship in the last 32 years, no longer pitched for the Phillies. He would fly to Arlington, Texas, off to join his new team, but not before saying goodbye to the fans.

"I know a lot of us were not from Philly. We come here and our dreams are to win a championship, to win a ring, and not really understand the purpose behind it. But I think we really grasped that when we got to take that parade down Broad Street and see what it really meant to the fans here," he said.

"I can't thank you [enough] for that. It's been one of the most joyous experiences that not only myself but my family has been able to be a part of."

After starting 307 regular and postseason games for the Phillies since May 2006, Hamels on Saturday night will start his first game in another uniform. The 31-year-old lefthander will take the Globe Life Park mound in a white and blue No. 35 Texas Rangers uniform and ready to pitch against the San Francisco Giants.

Hamels' first pitch for the Rangers will come exactly a week after his final one for a Phillies, the hanging curveball to Chicago Cubs rookie slugger Kris Bryant that resulted in the memorable Odubel Herrera catch to cap the pitcher's first career no-hitter. Hamels' jersey from that afternoon at Wrigley Field will long hang in his home. "The memories there," he said, "they're going to last forever."

Friday marked the official end of months of speculation regarding Hamels' future. The depth of talent in the Rangers' minor-league system made them "the right match" for the Phillies, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. The Houston Astros were also said to offer a strong package, but Hamels would not waive his limited no-trade clause to pitch for them.

Hamels and his wife, Heidi, had sat down for a month, he said, when deciding the nine teams that would not be covered by his no-trade clause. They sifted through pages of information to discern which best fit their criteria for "not only my baseball career but for my family," he said.

"You just want to make sure that you're making the best decision," added Hamels, whose brother and sister in-law and several friends, including a roommate from the minor leagues, live in the Dallas area. "It's not like when you get drafted, it's (pick) 18 or 21. You just have to go where you go and you make the best of it.

"It's more like a free-agent contract. I have four years left, so that was kind of what was the deciding, the details that were involved were just keeping our options open. And this happened, and this was on our list and this was an area that fit our criteria, and we're very excited to be able to start that chapter."

Amaro, speaking for the first time since consummating the most important trade of his much-maligned tenure as GM, said he and Rangers GM Jon Daniels worked on a potential Hamels deal for six-to-eight months. Phillies president Pat Gillick and his successor, Andy MacPhail, were in the room with Amaro, the GM said. Amaro was "the point guy," he said.

This July's trade market for Hamels was "much more fruitful" than the previous summer's, Amaro said. The pitcher, as healthy and effective as ever, was playing with one less guaranteed year on his contract than he did in 2014, which put more teams in the mix. Amaro reiterated Friday there was no mandate from ownership to trade Hamels, but the front office "felt collectively as a group that this was the right thing to do for our organization."

The trade injected five more prospects into the Phillies' system, including three of the Rangers' top five, according to Baseball America. Amaro was not able to pry either of Texas' best two, Joey Gallo and Nomar Mazara, but came away with a package the Phillies hope expedites the rebuild that began with December's trade of Jimmy Rollins.

Catcher Jorge Alfaro, outfielder Nick Williams and righthander Jake Thompson made up the centerpiece of the deal, and will long hear their names connected to Hamels. Williams and Thompson are set to join double-A Reading. Alfaro, one of baseball's top catching prospects, will visit with Phillies doctors about the ankle injury he sustained June 10. He will likely then continue to rehab at his new organization's minor-league complex in Clearwater.

"There's nothing at all easy about any of these decisions and trades. Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels - they're difficult because these are iconic players for our organization," Amaro said. "But these are the types of things that we set out to do when we went into this transition in the offseason, and we got a very good package of players that I think will help propel this organization forward in the future."