ONE MORE TRY
RB High alum Hamels, back from shoulder surgery, throws 1st bullpen effort with Padres
“Just trying to hang on and make the best of it one last time ... a f inal chapter ... and the opportunity to do it in San Diego.” Padres pitcher
Cole Hamels was at Qualcomm Stadium when the Padres clinched a playoff berth in 1998.
He was 15 at the time. He remembers the thousands of white towels and the noise. He recalls that after Trevor Hoffman struck out the final Dodgers batter, the Padres players gathered on the field for high fives and hugs while fireworks exploded beyond the giant scoreboard.
Hamels would go on to be a World Series MVP for the Phillies at 24 and a four-time AllStar. The Rancho Bernardo High School alumnus has pitched for four big-league teams and thrown at least 114 innings in 14 separate bigleague seasons.
Wednesday was the first time he took the mound in a Padres uniform. The 39-year-old left-hander didn’t throw a pitch. He pantomimed doing so and then backed up home plate during a defensive drill.
On Thursday, he threw for the first time in the bullpen at the Peoria Sports Complex. Hoffman was among the people watching.
There is a long way to go — at least a couple of months — if Hamels is to pitch for the team he grew up rooting for.
“When you’re a kid, just to play Major League Baseball is something that’s incredible,” said Hamels, who signed a minor league contract last week. “And if you ever get that opportunity and then to play for your hometown — just fortunate enough to be able to do it as long as I have and to get this opportunity. I’m very real in knowing that I’ve had a great career and I’m just trying to hang on and make the best of it one last time, to have a final chapter in what I’m doing and the opportunity to do it in San Diego.
“I do know I’ve got to earn every step of the way, and I’m here to do that. This is special, to walk into this clubhouse, growing up as a kid, to put a jersey (that says) the San Diego Padres and to see guys that I grew up idolizing — Hoffman and played with Tony Gwynn. Jr. all through Little League and in high school, and obviously a big fan of his dad. So this is just, it’s
special. And I’m taking it one day at a time and just making sure I make the best of it.”
The expectation is Hamels will face batters in a couple weeks but not pitch in games until extended spring training. If all progresses well, a minor league stint would follow before he joined the major league team. He has monthly outs in his contract which allow him to leave for another big-league opportunity if he is ready and the Padres don’t have a major league spot for him.
“I know this is the final kind of steps and trying to get back out on the field and be competitive,” he said. “I just have a few more months. But to be in this sort of care that the Padres have — the training staff, medical staff — very fortunate to know that they’re going to do their very best to get me out on the field, that final step in what I can try to go do.
“As an athlete, we know we can compete and we’ve done it for a long time. It’s just a matter of (whether) your body will allow you to do it. I think that’s the part that we all battle as our careers kind of come towards those ending points. The body and will you be able to get out there and will you be able to get results? Will you be able to recover? And that’s where we’re at in this stage, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Hamels checked the boxes Thursday in terms of how he moved and where he threw the ball. There were smiles all around after the left-hander’s sharp bullpen session.
He hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since he threw 31⁄3 innings (in one start) for the Braves in 2020 in an empty Camden Yards in Baltimore.
“It’s a really bitter moment to try to pitch in front of nobody,” he said. “My shoulder was not feeling the best. I knew I could still get outs. That’s the sort of determination that you have as an athlete is the competitiveness. And if you can still compete at a high level and still get results, why not try until it obviously doesn’t happen? It was just a matter of convincing my shoulder to do so.”
This is Hamels’ second comeback attempt since then, the last one ending after he threw one inning in a simulated game for the Dodgers in 2021.
He had major surgery two months later to repair the rotator cuff and capsule in his left shoulder.
This past year, he had a couple more procedures — to repair his right meniscus and a pinched nerve in his left foot. He looks as fit as ever. Hamels didn’t have much to do the past couple years besides work out.
Hamels has made more than $210 million playing major league baseball. He has 163 wins and has thrown nearly 2,700 innings. He has one of the coveted rings. And he’s not ready to be finished. “I would like one more opportunity to win,” he said. “I think I won at such a young age, and it was such a surreal moment. And to see that this moment is something that the Padres are really trying to get towards — as a kid, I mean, I was in the stands in 98, so I saw how special that was. So if I can just at least be some sort of help or some sort of inspiration and have some sort of moment in myself in being able to help the team win, that’s what I want to do.”