The Phillies have avoided arbitration with stud ace Cole Hamels and signed him to a three-year $20.5 million contract.

The Phils got some more signin’ to do because Ryan Howard, Ryan Madson, Shane Victorino, Joe Blanton, Jayson Werth and Chad Durbin are still eligible for arbitration.

Hamels’ deal takes care of his arbitration years and will not cut into his free agent years. He was 14-10 in 2008 with a 3.09 ERA. He had a 1.80 ERA in the playoffs and was World Series and NLCS MVP.

Micah Warren is a sports writer from New York and the founder of Blast's sports section and the Off the Record sports blog.