Cubs trade for Rangers’ Cole Hamels to help rotation

As Cubs manager Joe Maddon addressed reporters Thursday after the Cubs’ big ninth-inning comeback to beat the Diamondbacks 7-6, team president Theo Epstein walked through the adjoining hallway and headed through another doorway toward Maddon’s office.

Epstein’s smile was bigger than Maddon’s. Bigger, even, than that of Anthony Rizzo, who hit the walkoff homer.

“Did he just have a good Italian beef sandwich?” said Maddon, who couldn’t see Epstein around the corner. “Or a banana in his pocket?”

Turns out he had a trade in his pocket for Rangers starter Cole Hamels, a move desperately needed to bolster the Cubs’ rotation, which has been beating up its bullpen with short starts all season.

Sources confirmed Thursday’s agreement, which won’t be finalized until both teams sign off on medical evaluations.

The deal involves minor-league players going to the Rangers and is believed to also involve significant cash to offset some of the $14 million of guaranteed money left on Hamels’ contract (including a $6 million buyout on a $20 million club option for 2019).

After losing out to other teams on trade targets such as Zach Britton and J.A. Happ in recent days, the Cubs zeroed in on Hamels, a 34-year-old lefty with big-game pedigree, if suspect numbers this season.

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The deal was discussed as the Cubs endured another six-walk short start from Tyler Chatwood, whose spot in the rotation could be in jeopardy unless the Cubs use a six-man rotation.

Hamels doesn’t appear to be the pitcher he was when he earned the World Series MVP designation in 2008, pitching the Phillies to a championship over Maddon’s Rays. He doesn’t appear to be the pitcher he was just three years ago, when he threw a no-hitter at Wrigley Field in his last start for the Phillies before being traded to the Rangers.

But a look inside some of his numbers suggest he could bring a noticeable upgrade to a rotation that has averaged barely five innings a start this season.

“I’ve not liked him for a long time,” Maddon said with a smirk after the Cubs finished off Thursday’s comeback with David Bote’s tying homer in the ninth and Rizzo’s walkoff two pitches later. “He’s pitched some really big games against teams I’ve been involved with and done really well. He’s a great competitor. He’s got good stuff. He competes and knows what he’s doing out there, so I have to rank him as a pretty competent major-league pitcher.”

Before Thursday’s big finish against the Diamondbacks, Chatwood ran his major-league-leading walks total to 85 — 21 more than anyone else in baseball.

“When I start missing, I kind of just aim the ball rather than aggressively throwing it like I know I can,” Chatwood said. “I’ve never really had to battle this much in my career with my command.”

Largely because of that poor start, the Cubs fell behind in the 75th of 102 games, clinging to first place in the division on the strength of a stout bullpen and the highest-scoring lineup in the league.

“We need that five-plus,” Maddon said as he talked again about preserving the overworked bullpen, which remains without closer Brandon Morrow, who’s on the disabled list (biceps) for the second time.

The Cubs also lost 2016 MVP Kris Bryant to a second DL stint Thursday — for the same shoulder injury that has hampered him for two months.

Even in what looks, at first glance, like a down year for Hamels (5-9, 4.72 ERA, 23 homers allowed in 20 starts), most of the damage has come at the Rangers’ hitter-loving ballpark. Away from Texas, he has a 2.93 ERA and seven homers allowed in 10 starts and 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings. In seven starts against teams in playoff position, regardless of location, he also has a 2.93 ERA.

And a move to the National League should benefit him.

“He’s been pretty good,” Maddon said.