Will St. Louis Cardinals trade for Cole Hamels?

Are the St. Louis Cardinals still exploring the trade market for left-handed pitcher Cole Hamels?

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The Philadelphia Phillies pitcher has been in the news lately and the trade winds have repeatedly linked the pitcher to the St. Louis Cardinals, including an article that appeared last week of which we reported on.

Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal follows up on that report but with a focus on Hamels.

With arbitration numbers needing to be exchanged by today at the latest, the Cardinals have been very busy talking with representatives of the four players in hopes of reaching an agreement before today. So far, Lance Lynn, Peter Bourjos, and Tony Cruz have reached an agreement. Jon Jay is the last arbitration-eligible player not to reach an agreement for this upcoming season.

With all of that out of the way, the club can turn their focus back to exploring a move for a pitcher should they decide to do so.

"Would the Phillies accept a package headed by righty Carlos Martinez and outfielder Randal Grichuk? The better question might be whether the Cardinals would offer such a package. Like the Red Sox, they remain deeply protective of their prospects."

I can see Grichuk being moved depending on what we see from Jay and Bourjos this season. If Bourjos isn’t hitting the ball, the Cardinals are going to have to do something about it sooner rather than later. There’s still the question of whether or not Jason Heyward signs a contract extension with the Cardinals. If he doesn’t, mark down Stephen Piscotty for right field in 2016.

The Martinez question is interesting and we covered that last week. I’ve seen a lot of talk about how he will become a Hall of Fame pitcher should the Cardinals trade him. The simple answer to that is: I don’t know. I’ve seen plenty of players build a solid case for the Hall in their first five years, only to slip away into oblivion. That’s neither here nor there on Martinez but I just don’t know.

Martinez had the opportunity to sell himself as a starter in 2014 but it didn’t work out as anyone would have hoped. Maybe this season is different. Maybe it’s not. We’ll see.