The “Hamilton situation” was bound to be a hot topic, and it looks as if the commissioner’s office and MLB have released the verdict the Friday before Opening Day, hoping that will overshadow everything going on with Hamilton and make it a non-issue. Smart of them really. But the reactions, that’s what I’ve been studying and to be completely honest, so much of this doesn’t make sense.
For those that don’t know, an independent arbitrator found that Josh Hamilton wasn’t in violation of any drug policy and thus, will not serve any suspension time. Is it a technicality? Sure, but MLB must respect this decision. But instead Major League Baseball chose to say that they disagreed with the outcome and will “address deficiencies…..in the collective bargaining process”. This is basically saying they’re going to renegotiate the wording in the CBA in the future so that this never happens again.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Hamilton.
But then the Angels decided to release their own take on this situation.
“The Angels have serious concerns about Josh’s conduct, health and behavior and we are disappointed that he has broken an important commitment which he made to himself, his family, his teammates and our fans.”
Angels president John Carpino even went as far as saying “Hamilton ruling defies logic”.
This doesn’t sound as if the Angels are ready to welcome him back with open arms. But “why” is the question? Is it because of the money? The easy answer would be yes, but that’s not a complete answer. The Angels are no strangers to large contracts going south.
Gary Matthews Jr., Vernon Wells, Joe Blanton, C.J. Wilson, Albert Pujols to an extent and now Josh Hamilton.
But the weird thing is, the Angels NEVER threw any of the other players under the bus like this. They’ve shown nothing but support and belief in these players all the way to the bitter end, and frequently, it was quite bitter. But, the money was never an issue. They knew they made a mistake in the signing, they worked the best they could with what they had. Why now are the Angels shifting course?
It seems entirely possible that there’s more going on here that the Angels, MLB and Josh Hamilton aren’t saying. Of all those names I listed, all were upset with their performance, Hamilton included. But none of them were “bad” in the clubhouse, not even Hamilton up to this point. To me, it seems entirely possible that Josh has quietly alienated himself in Anaheim the same way he did in Texas and we just aren’t hearing about it.
For those that remember, Hamilton was frequently booed his final year in Texas and the Rangers didn’t even bother extending an offer or negotiating with Hamilton upon reaching free agency. It was a “good riddance” sort of separation. Then Hamilton went and said Arlington, Texas “Wasn’t a baseball town”. True as it may be, you just don’t say things like that to the media, you don’t burn bridges like that.
As far as Hamilton’s relationship with the Angels players is concerned, they’ve all ran threw the standard lines that they wish him well, and nothing more.
But perhaps a clear view on the Angels relationship with Hamilton is displayed in this picture, taken during the Angels ALDS defeat to eventual AL Champion Kansas City Royals
That’s Hamilton, right there in the lower left-hand corner of the picture, sitting while the rest of his teammates ignore him and stand. This wasn’t a one time thing either during the series. This scenario was somewhat of a constant during that series. And understandably so, Hamilton was -017 and looked awful against the Royals. But he wasn’t the only one. The Angels had a bad series and the Royals were red hot, but you still see the rest of the team on the front steps, engaged, together, like any other MLB team would be in this situation.
Hamilton hasn’t made any announcements concerning the issue and the Angels and MLB are currently being vilified for their callousness. But the Angels are generally a classy organization. No one’s perfect, but the Angels have tended to say the right things and follow protocol. They aren’t ones to air their dirty laundry and as far as talking to the media goes, they’ve always played their intentions close to the vest, which makes them a wild card at the winter meetings and annoys Ken Rosenthal to no end.
So why would a typically “good” organization go on the attack like this? It probably isn’t the money. They’ve shown before they don’t turn their back on players because of that. Is it declining performance? No, the Angels have dealt with that in a respectful manner as well. So what is it? If the Angels know, they oddly aren’t saying anything, even if they’re inferring it, the same way the Rangers did when Hamilton had worn out his welcome there.
It just seems to me that there’s a lot more to this story than what is being reported.
