Cole Hamels is 1-3 with a 10.23 ERA in his last five starts.

Maybe Cole Hamels loves Texas. Maybe this is the team he wants to spend the rest of his career with. Maybe this is his subtle way of ensuring he won’t be traded.

That’s about the only way to explain his sudden and dramatic transformation to Matt Moore.

In his last five starts he’s given up four runs, seven runs, seven runs, four runs, and seven runs.

Scientists at MIT are working overtime to try to decipher his ERA.

Poor Jon Daniels can’t seem to catch a break. His infertile farm system was banking on a good return for Hamels, and now that seems to be in jeopardy.

At a time when the Rangers needed him to be at his best, Hamels has been his worst. He has one more start until the trade deadline. Not that he is going to magically figure it out. But maybe he throws a great one and the Rangers get the prospect they were wanting rather than getting stuck with a someone lesser just to get him off the books.

But, baseball front offices are a forgiving bunch. Look at what happened to Yu Darvish in the World Series and how many teams pursued him in spite of that.

Of course, there’s always the possibility he could have a few good starts and get dealt in August when he’d have to clear waivers. Chances are pretty good another team isn’t going to claim him and have to eat all that salary.

Any team trading for Hamels still owes him the rest of his $23.5 million for this year, around $9 million, and then has to decide if they want to pay him $20 million next year, or pay off his $6 million option to let him walk. So, at the least it’s a $15 million gamble on Hamels.

Thankfully, when there’s a shot at the postseason on the line, GMs are like drunken sailors on shore leave throwing mad money in Vegas.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Frankie Montas (5-2, 3.35) vs. Mike Minor (6-6, 4.89)
Game time: 7:05

How the Athletics hit against Minor.
How the Rangers hit against Montas.