Cole Hamels became the latest Philadelphia Phillies player to top $20 million per season when he signed a six-year contract extension with the club Wednesday. It certainly gets expensive to keep a dynasty running.

The five-time National League East champions probably aren’t winning the crown again this season. It seems unlikely they can catch the wild-card leaders well ahead of them in the standings let alone the first-place Nationals. But this move was about the future for Philadelphia, which still has veterans Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay in the rotation and can reasonably hope for better health and better performance from its veteran batters next season. Add in a quick rebuild of what has been the major leagues’ fourth-worst bullpen and there might still be life yet in this proud, aging team.