What can Atlanta Braves fans expect from Cole Hamels in 2020?
By Steven Teal
Cole Hamels is one of the major acquisitions made by the Atlanta Braves this offseason. What can fans expect from him during the 2020 campaign?
The Atlanta Braves front office had the task of replacing two spots in the starting rotation this offseason after the 2019 season came to a close. Dallas Keuchel and Julio Teheran have found themselves in new uniforms for 2020.
Alex Anthopoulos addressed part of this need by signing veteran pitcher Cole Hamels to a one-year deal worth $18 million.
Hamels has long been considered one of the best pitchers in all of Major League Baseball. However, in recent years, he’s not been as consistently great as he once had been.
That’s not to say he hasn’t had any great seasons since leaving Philidelphia. He did have an All-Star season in 2016 for the Rangers and pitched very well in the second half of 2018 after being traded to the Cubs.
In 2019 he was off to an amazing start and it looked like he was going to have yet another impressive year. His first-half numbers are listed below:
6-3, 2.98 ERA, 99.2 IP, 33 ER, 33 BB, 97 K
Those are pretty good numbers and he appeared to be locked in. Unfortunately, Hamels suffered an oblique injury that caused him to miss all of July.
His return to pitching did not go so well as Hamels posted an ERA of 5.79 in 42 innings.
However, the Atlanta Braves are hoping that they’ll see the first-half version of Hamels in a Braves uniform.
That faith has been shaken a bit for some of the fanbase as he is going to open the 2020 season on the injured list after suffering discomfort in his shoulder during an offseason workout.
Cole Hamels is still at least a few weeks away from being cleared to throw. But Snit expects Hamels to arrive in Braves' camp later this week.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) February 16, 2020
Hamels is expected to join the team at Cool Today Park in North Port, Fla. sometime this week and could begin throwing in the next couple of weeks.
So, he may be able to pitch in late April or early May if things go well.
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I know that it’s not favorable to already have a hole to fill in the rotation but it’s better to have to deal with this at the beginning rather than the end of the season.
What we do know, is that he will pitch for Atlanta at some point. Let’s get into some of the projections for Hamels in 2020.