Josh Hamilton is an addict. It cost him three years of his career from 2003-05 and most of a fourth (2006). He suffered well-reported relapses while with the Rangers in both 2009 and 2012. It was well known within the game that Hamilton was extremely sensitive and that Texas officials had to work arduously to get him onto the field at times.
The Angels minimized that information, so infatuated was their ownership with Hamilton’s star power and raw power. They gave him a five-year, $125 million contract after the 2012 season. It was the baseball version of gambling big in Las Vegas — the possibility of losing it all had to be considered.
That makes their behavior now reprehensible in the aftermath of a neutral arbitrator ruling Friday that Hamilton did not violate the Joint Drug Agreement by voluntarily informing baseball that he had relapsed, reportedly with cocaine.
By issuing his own statement of disappointment with the ruling, new commissioner Rob Manfred indicated that if the arbitrator had ruled differently, he was prepared to levy a significant suspension. The winner of that suspension would have been the Angels’ Arte Moreno, one of the few owners who initially voted against Manfred’s election.
The Angels would not have had to pay Hamilton during a suspension and the outfielder is owed $23 million in 2015 and $86 million over the next three years. Now he is due every penny without any idea if he can play at all, much less at a decent level.
But, again, the Angels had to know the rules of engagement going into life with Hamilton. And they should better respect the rules of the game.
The five-member arbitration panel consists of an executive and a doctor for both the Commissioners Office and Players Association. They voted as you expected. The arbitrator broke the deadlock in Hamilton’s favor. Game over.
Yet, the Angels issued a statement in the name of general manager Jerry DiPoto that said they expressed “serious concerns about Josh’s conduct, health and behavior.” Club president John Carpino told reporters: “It defies logic that Josh’s reported behavior is not a violation of his current program.”
There are overtones of Alex Rodriguez here. The Yankees might not have known A-Rod was a steroid user before giving him his 10-year, $275 million extension, but they knew he was a problematic figure in the clubhouse. They ignored that for his star power and raw power. His reputation, skills and health diminished and the club suddenly was looking for ways to get out of the final three years of a contract.
Hamilton has played poorly for the Angels, culminating with an 0-for-13 AL Division Series last year. He needed offseason shoulder surgery that left him unable to play in spring and now into the season. But with this ruling, when he is healthy, the Angels — much like the Yankees uneasily reintroduced Rodriguez back into their environment — will have to do the same with Hamilton with full pay. This will create awkwardness and worse for a club expected to be a contender. And that the Angels have to pay his full salary could, in theory, keep them from making other moves that cost money.
Hamilton turns 34 in May. He is delicate of body and psyche. He has four children and the question if he can re-assemble his life and do it in a way in which he is capable of playing in the majors at a suitable level now is part of his personal struggle while looming menacingly over a team that clearly no longer wants him.