Chicago Cubs: Interest in Phillies’ Cole Hamels still remains

Hamels rumors will continue to swirl for Cubs

The winter seemed to be filled with rumors involving the Chicago Cubs. Some realistic, some not. At one point, before the comes signed

, the Philadelphia Phillies’

sat near the top of the “wishlist”. But the Cubs were one of the teams listed in his no-trade clause, and the package of prospects they would demand was thought to be excessive. Now the word is the Cubs haven’t let go of the possibility of bringing Hamels to Chicago later this year.

Chicago Sun-Times Gordon Wittenmyer says the Cubs “continue to touch base” on Hamels. It’s believed that Kris Bryant and Addison Russell are the “untouchables”, but that still leaves a full stable of prospects for the Cubs to deal from. They remain strong positionally in the farm system while the Phillies are anything but.

With the start the Cubs have gotten off to in the first month, and now a great outing from Lester to open the month of May–it’s hard not to believe this team won’t be buyers come July. Or at the least be on the fence. So is Hamels worth the moving of prospects? Very much so. And if Bryant and Russell develop into what we expect, with Starlin Castro seemingly being a reborn player at shortstop–Javier Baez could be the odd man out for the Cubs, and immediately one of the Phillies top prospects.

The Cubs also have Dan Vogelbach in Double-A absolutely scorching the ball, but some guy named Anthony Rizzo doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and unless the National League adopts the DH (Please, no. Never do that), Vogelbach has nowhere to play. Another one, once he’s healthy is Mike Olt. There’s still potential there for Olt, but his window in Chicago may have closed. He offers another tantalizing piece.

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The Hamels to the Cubs talk won’t end until he either ends up here or gets traded elsewhere. If he does end up in Chicago come July, that will be a sign of very, very good things.

Next: Baez returns to I-Cubs