Just three years ago, almost to the day, Cole Hamels was throwing the first no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs in 50 years. Now he will be suiting up for the Cubs his next time around in the rotation. Late on Thursday night, the team agreed to trade multiple prospects for the four time All-Star.

It has not been smooth sailing so far this season for the 13 year Major League veteran, as he is sporting some pretty ugly numbers. A 4.72 ERA and 5.20 FIP is ugly enough but that also goes along with a home run rate that stands as the highest of his career thus far. While we are at it, it probably wouldn’t hurt to mention the fact that his Hard-Hit % also stands as the highest rate of his career at 44.9% which is nearly 9% higher than his previous season-long worst.

BUT it isn’t all bad here, folks. Hamels has had the honor of pitching half of his games this season in Globe Life Park in Arlington, which has statistically been the friendliest ballpark to home run hitters across all of baseball. On the season, he sports a much better 2.93 ERA on the road with opponents hitting just .220 off of him and a pretty .382 SLG-against.

In addition to his wacky home/road splits, he also has seen his stats inflated by an absolutely brutal month of July. In just 17 innings this month, he has put up an 11.12 ERA and given up an ugly slash line of .354/.407/.603. Yuck. Prior to the last 26 days, he managed a much better looking season, with ERAs at 4.08, 3.20, 3.34 month by month.

If you aren’t a stats guy/gal, then you should know that Hamels has a track record as one of the best and most consistent pitchers in the game. With underperforming starting rotation members Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana, and Yu Darvish expected to put up numbers that are more similar to their career stats to this point, Hamels doesn’t need to be the ace that he once was.

A veteran presence that eats innings and provides some stability with an option of starting Game 4 of a Postseason series would be perfectly fine from him. AGAIN, Hamels does not need to be the 2014 version of himself, he just needs to be a better version than what we have seen so far in 2018.

Be on the lookout for an update from us on what the Cubs had to give up in the trade to acquire Hamels.