It’s Hot Stove season in Major League Baseball and Cole Hamels is returning to the Philadelphia Phillies

Not as a free agent left-handed starter, but as a special instructor at Spring Training and a part of their broadcast team on NBC Sports Philadelphia this season, according to Jim Salisbury of PHLY.

The broadcast team consists of play-by-play man Tom McCarthy, along with various analysts including John Kruk, Ruben Amaro Jr., and Ben Davis.  Mike Schmidt also appears during Sunday home games.

It would makse sense for Hamels to appear during some road broadcast throughout the season in the mid-west or out on the west coast, with his home in Dallas, but no role has been announced at this time.

As for his Spring Training role, many former Phillies have made appearances in Clearwater as special instructors and could work with the Phillies pitching staff before the season begins.

Hamels is a member of the 2008 World Series championship team and was the MVP of both the NLCS and World Series, becoming a big-game pitcher. During the World Series season, Hamels was 14-10 with a 3.09 ERA in 33 games, tossing 227.1 innings.

During the 2008 run, he went 4-0 with an ERA of 1.80 and 30 strikeouts in 35 innings.

He made his final start for the Phillies on July 25, 2015 tossing a no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs before being traded to Texas on July 31.

During the 2024 season, Hamels officially retired as a member of the organization he was drafted by back in the first-round of the 2002 draft.