Phillies reveal, downplay Cole Hamels’ shoulder soreness

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. revealed that Cole Hamels dealt with “some shoulder soreness at the end of the season” and then experienced more problems when he “got aggressive” in his offseason throwing program.

However, the GM assured Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com that it’s not a long-term worry, saying:

I’d be concerned if this was an issue, but we don’t view this as an issue at all. ... We shut him down for a couple of weeks, but he’s fine now. He was being proactive more than anything else, which is good. We backed him off and slowed him down, but he’s back throwing now and doing fine. He’s had no complaints.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Amaro and the Phillies have been less than forthcoming about some significant injuries in recent years, often downplaying the severity or simply obscuring details.

For now Amaro is saying that Hamels’ shoulder soreness was “not uncommon” and Salisbury notes that the Phillies put the 29-year-old left-hander through a full slate of medical testing before inking a six-year, $144 million contract extension five months ago. And he went 3-0 with a 3.38 ERA in six September starts, posting a 44/7 K/BB ratio in 38 innings.