San Diego Padres Announce That Cole Hamels Has Retired

It has been quite a while since Cole Hamels has taken a major league pitching mound.  In fact, next month will mark three full years since he made a single appearance for the Atlanta Braves.  Despite signing a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres this past offseason, that Braves appearance will be his last.

The San Diego Padres announced that both Hamels and reliever Craig Stammen have decided to retire.  Hamels never made an appearance for San Diego professionally.  So while Stammen had a dedicated social media announcement, Hamels did not.

Hamels grew up a San Diego Padres fan and idolized Gwynn, frequently wearing Gwynn's number 19 whenever he had a choice.

Though he pitched for the Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and that brief Braves appearance, Hamels will of course be remembered best with the Philadelphia Phillies.  Drafted by the Phillies in 2002, Hamels won both the NLCS and World Series MVP honors in 2008, en route to a Phillies World Series Championship.

Hamels was dealt to the Texas Rangers in the summer of 2015.  The last start of his Phillies career, of course, was one of his most memorable:

Hamels still loves the Philadelphia area and the Jersey Shore of course.

In fact, just a few weeks ago Hamels was spotted in Ocean City, New Jersey. That raised questions as to whether or not he was still going to play baseball.  As it turns out, his body decided for him that it was time to retire.

Lifetime, Hamels was 163-122 with 2,560 strikeouts and a 3.43 ERA.  He appeared in 423 major league games from his debut in 2006 through his last start in 2020.