The Rangers told reporters today that Josh Hamilton will be sidelined following arthroscopic surgery to repair the cartilage in his left knee (Twitter link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). Hamilton won’t be able to begin running for six weeks, and any potential return to a game setting figures to be further down the road than that. Hamilton’s ACL, which was surgically repaired last June, did not have any damage. MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets that Hamilton will be out “well into the season,” but adds that there’s been no talk of him calling it a career just yet.
The 35-year-old Hamilton was in camp with the Rangers as a non-roster invitee and was hopeful of securing a roster spot as an option for Texas at first base, though this latest setback raises significantly more doubt about his ability to return to a Major League field. The previously mentioned surgery to repair Hamilton’s ACL also included a meniscus repair, and this new operation represents the fourth procedure on his left knee since returning to Texas.
Hamilton hasn’t played in the Majors since the conclusion of the 2015 campaign. His last work in the bigs resulted in a .253/.291/.441 batting line over the life of 182 plate appearances. The 2017 season is technically the final year of the five-year, $125MM contract he signed with the Angels in the 2012-13 offseason. Anaheim remains on the hook for the vast majority of that deal, as the Rangers were only picking up $2MM of his salary on an annual basis following the deal.
Just needs to retire
I’m sure he will at the end of this season. No way he walks away from that 25 mil Arte is giving him
Just hang them up already dude
Here’s a novel idea–why don’t you let the player decide when he wants to retire.
Good point
Agree
Sometimes Father Time makes that decision for the player.
wonderful idea, especially when your getting paid 25 million to do nothing
Shows how dumb owners are.
Especially Arte
Bc obviously the player and team aren’t capable of making that decision
The devil makes work of idle hands
I didn’t realize he had any knees left at this point.
He doesn’t
Bet they had a hard time putting him out for the procedure.
That’s cold man
Hahaha that’s good
Nice!!
Smirks……….
Classy. Kick a man while he’s down.
I love Josh but that is damn funny
I know you guys think addiction is a joke but it’s actually classified as a real disease, and when recovering addicts have to have surgery it can be a real struggle to find pain medication that is non-narcotic. (Obviously, anesthesia is not a habit forming drug so it is easy to get around it, although arthroscopic surgery generally only needs a local anesthetic.)
Hamilton’s career is probably over, but, as recovering addict myself, I give him nothing but praise for overcoming a disease that most people never overcome, enough to win an MVP award and have a few other very good seasons.
Nice perspective, thanks. Keep up the great work on your recovery.
they found a vein somewhere…
Squandered greatness is always a sad tale, this could have been a HOF player if drugs hadn’t entered the scene. Injuries are inevitable as players age, so this appears to be the end of Hamilton’s career.
Nobody can really know if this is the end. Josh was great after fighting through his drug issues. Hardly “squandered greatness” if he made MVP. How long was a supposed to be MVP to satisfy your definition of sustained greatness?
What are you his PR guy?
A lot longer than one season, that’s for sure.
18 years since he was drafted… 1100 hits 200 homers. With his talent should be near 600. I’d say that’s squandered
yea–that covers it
He was sick for a long time then he got better. One can compare him to Grady Sizemore, who ended his career with less hits and homers, but saw his career end because of injury. We think of addiction as some matter of willpower, but addiction is an illness. It’s a disease. It’s an injury
Ok Buster Olney
Looks like Loney may have a clearer shot on making the team.
I hope not
With his knees being like they are, he needs to have a talk with Oscar Goldman.
Poor guy. I feel bad for him, but I think it’s time to hang’em up.
$125 Million for what? one season’s work. Save your pity for guys selling
beer and hot dogs for extra money
He’s always injured or has some other problems……
So assuming the Angels had an insurance policy on him….do they get to collect even though he’s not on their team anymore but are paying his salary? Anyone know how that works?
I do believe Arte was a complete idiot with this signing and did not take out and bit of insurance for any reason.
No positive, but think ur right. Art was trying to get him under contract before rangers got a chance to talk to him
… which was stupid because Josh Hamilton had already pissed off Texas management at how he reacted when he “fell off the wagon”.
Mid season form
… the Yankee Stadium HR Derby was impressive, to say the least. Great career. Hamilton’s body has gone through the wringer, seems like a long road back.
Honestly I think he should at least try this year then hang it up. But at this point, can we just give him into the million dollar man and rebuild his knees lol
Dude hasn’t played in almost 2 yrs, 4 surgeries in a year and can’t get through 2 weeks of spring training, yet thinks he can get through daily grind of the last 4 months of the season? Come on, dude, u flushed ur career, deal with it
Just say your still playing until you get all that money haha
I could not believe the Angels with Trout, Pujols, and Hamilton on the same team did not have more success than they did. It was a pitcher’s nightmare with that lineup. But you also have to have quality pitching also to compete, and that is where the Angels faltered. It doesn’t matter if you score 10 runs and your pitching staff cannot stop them from scoring 11.