Will the Braves Get Anything Out of Cole Hamels in 2020

It’s been a very interesting 2020 for Cole Hamels and the Atlanta Brave and you have to wonder if they’ll ever get anything out of the veteran.

When the first spring training started for the Atlanta Braves we already knew Cole Hamels had a setback that would cost him the first month or so of the season.

At the time we brushed it off as no big deal and it was more important to have him down the stretch and in the postseason potentially.

And it helped matters that Sean Newcomb, Felix Hernandez, and Kyle Wright were all throwing the ball well in March.

Here we are four months later and you figure the extra time off would have give the 36-year-old lefty plenty of time to heal up, but that’s apparently not the case.

He’s now dealing tricep tendonitis that has kept him from throwing much in Summer Camp.

This is my opportunity to say I didn’t love the Hamels signing from the beginning. Yes, I get that it was just a one year risk, but a one-year risk for a lot of money ($18 million).

Now they don’t have to pay nearly as much, but I’m also not expecting much out of him.

So far, the most the Braves have gotten out of Hamels is the knowledge he’s been able to pass on to guys like Max Fried.

And Fried goes on to win a Cy Young one because of it then I’ll gladly eat the money for signing Hamels.

But with Dallas Keuchel and Julio Teheran gone, Hamels was supposed to be the veteran to lead this rotation and be near the top of the rotation.

At this point, it seems like we’ll be fortunate to get 30 or 40 innings out of him. In fact, that might be a bit optimistic considering the short season and the fact Brian Snitker is going to limit starters to begin with.

Now, moving on from my rant.

Hamels will likely have a little over a week to get ramped up for the start of the season if he’s actually healthy.

The Braves don’t need a fifth starter until July 28, so if Hamels were cleared later this week he could have almost two full weeks to get ready — that’s maybe two live bullpen sessions.

And that’s thinking optimistically.

If he has another setback or isn’t ready to go, we’re looking at him not coming back until mid-August at the earliest and we’ll be 1/3 of the way through the season.

With Felix gone and a lot of unknowns in the rotation, we were hoping Hamels would be the one constant behind Soroka.

The Braves need him to be healthy. I feel like he’s still a good pitcher when healthy. Let’s all just hope that actually happens and we get something from him in 2020. Forgive me for not believing that might actually happen.