If the Jays are ever going to become a good team they need to develop their own talent, we can't sell the farm every time we get in a race. We're not the Dodgers
If we acquire Hamels and the asking price is as steep as we assume, then we basically need to win this year because we have no depth in starting pitching to start the 2016 year. Maybe we get lucky and Buehrle agrees to a cheap one deal but you can't count on it.
Of course Hamels is better but he's currently 32nd in WAR for pitchers and that's what I'm valuing him at.
Next year there's a lot of decent free agent pitching available - I'd rather get have Sharkey and Kazmir than Hamels.
Trading for Hamels is like resorting to hail mary's in the 3rd quarter
See where Hamels ranks among pitchers this year:
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2015&month=0&season1=2015&ind=0&page=1_30
If we make trades this year and they don't work we likely shoot ourselves in the foot for next year. If we do nothing we still have a shot this year and go into next year with a better chance
I agree with this and even if we acquire Cueto/Chapman or Hamels/Papelbon we might still come up short, but if we wait a year we'll have Stroman back and a lot of money to work with.
If he sits on his hands we start 2016 with a rotation of Stroman, Hutchison, Sanchez, Boyd, Norris with tons of money saved from Buehrle and Dickey. If we make a trade we likely lose 2 of the last 3 and again have very little SP depth
Castro, Pentecost, Labourt, Alford and we'll pay the contracts. Papelbon and Hamels have zero value to the Phillies, both are signed to stupid contracts