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Rangers Release Josh Hamilton, Who Will Undergo Knee Surgery

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The Rangers announced today that they have released outfielder Josh Hamilton from the minor-league deal that the sides struck during the offseason. Per the club, Hamilton suffered another knee injury during his rehabilitation efforts and will again require surgery.

Hamilton’s most recent surgery was on his left knee, the latest in a long line of procedures performed on the joint. But his new injury — the details of which have not been reported — occurred to the opposite knee.

It’s not known what’s next for the 35-year-old, who was in the mix for a roster spot in Spring Training before going under the knife. Last he played in the majors, back in 2015, Hamilton still had above-average power but struggled to reach base with a declining walk rate.

You have to go further back to find a full season of action — 2013, with the Angels — and further still to find one in which he was a highly productive player. That’d be 2012, when Hamilton set himself up for a big free-agent payday by slashing .285/.354/.577 and swatting 43 home runs in Texas. The Angels are paying off the last of that deal (less $2MM still owed by the Rangers) this year.

Josh Hamilton Undergoes Knee Surgery

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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.

AL West Notes: Hamilton, Bailey, Mariners, Devenski

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Some news and notes from around the AL West…

  • Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton is expected to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Monday, the club told reporters (including Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram).  Hamilton underwent two surgical procedures on that same knee last year and has been bothered by soreness in the same joint this spring.  According to assistant GM Mike Daly, the Rangers still “feel good that Josh is going to play,” and haven’t had any talks with the veteran about his future with the organization.  Texas re-signed Hamilton to a minor league deal over the winter as the former AL MVP is attempting to revive his career after several injury-plagued down years, plus a lost 2016 that saw him play in just one minor league game.
  • Andrew Bailey “never seriously considered leaving” the Angels in free agency this winter, the veteran reliever tells Pedro Moura of the L.A. Times.  “I feel like, with where I’m at in my career and what I’ve been through, signing early and getting something done and focusing on getting ready for this year was more important to me than chasing something else,” Bailey said.  Amusing, he didn’t actually realize he was headed for free agency until last September, as Bailey believed he was still arbitration-eligible; he just barely passed the required six years of service time to hit the open market.  The righty pitched well after signing a minor league deal with the Angels last August, and showed signs of recovery from several injury-plagued years by tossing 43 2/3 innings in 2016.
  • The Mariners were counting on their “big three” of James Paxton, Taijuan Walker and Danny Hultzen to anchor their rotation for years to come, though as Larry Stone of the Seattle Times observes, only Paxton is still on the M’s roster.  Walker was dealt to the Diamondbacks in November as part of the multi-player deal that brought Jean Segura to the M’s while Hultzen is simply trying to resume his career in the wake of multiple arm injuries.
  • Chris Devenski’s surprising rise from unheralded prospect to a major weapon out of the Astros bullpen gives Houston some pitching flexibility, ESPN’s Mark Simon writes.  The ’Stros could utilize Devenski as one of their many setup options, a multi-inning fireman like Andrew Miller or potentially even as starting depth in the back end of the rotation.  Over 108 1/3 innings as a rookie last season, Devenski posted a very impressive 2.16 ERA, 8.6 K/9 and 5.2 K/BB rate.

AL Notes: Romney, Brantley, Hamilton, O’s, Frazier, Red Sox

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After moving on from a potential effort to buy the Marlins, Mitt Romney and his family are eyeing the purchase of a share of the Yankees, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag. In this case, though, the high-profile politician and businessman would only be looking at obtaining a small portion of the franchise’s highly valuable ownership stake.

Here’s more from the American League:

  • There’s ongoing concern in the Indians organization regarding the health of outfielder Michael Brantley, Heyman futher reports. Though Cleveland is expressing at least some degree of optimism publicly, the most important steps remain to be taken. Hopes that Brantley could be ready to take the field on Opening Day “have waned just a tad,” says Heyman, though clearly the most important issue isn’t so much when he’s ready as it is ensuring that there isn’t another major setback when he does return to action.
  • It seems that Josh Hamilton will be able to resume his quest to crack the Rangers roster, as he T.R. Sullivan was among those to tweet that a knee exam yesterday revealed no new structural damage. For the time being, it seems, the discomfort will slow him down somewhat, though presumably he’ll be back in action as soon as the oft-injured joint allows.
  • The Orioles continue to receive positive signs on two key pitchers who are dealing with some early-spring health questions, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports (Twitter links). Though Zach Britton still has “a little discomfort in [his] left side,” he says it’s getting better. And starter Chris Tillman says that his right shoulder “feels great” as he continues to throw long toss. It’s not yet clear when the two hurlers will get back on the mound.
  • White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier, meanwhile, is dealing with what he describes as a minor oblique issue, as Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago reports. Frazier, who is considered day-to-day for the time being, says he’ll likely just sit for a few days while the tightness hopefully subsides. “It’s something I’ve dealt with before,” says Frazier, who remains a potential trade chip in his final year of team control. “But at the same time, from what I’ve heard they’re not anything to mess with. So let’s take a couple days and see how it is after a couple days and go from there.”
  • As the Red Sox have moved to cash in prospect assets for talented major leaguers since the arrival of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the remaining young players have seemingly taken on added importance to the club’s future. As Rob Bradford of WEEI.com writes, the Sox refused to part with third baseman Rafael Devers in the deal that ultimately netted Chris Sale. He and first baseman Sam Travis — who missed a significant chunk of 2016 due to knee surgery — aren’t expected to head north with the club out of camp, but could play a major role not long from now. As Dombrowski observes: “The best clubs are constantly breaking in young players on a consistent basis, year in, year out. And you also need it from a cost basis perspective.”

Injury Notes: Elbow Therapy, Hamilton, Britton, Cishek, Wright, Wheeler, Braves, Gibson

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With elbow health continuing to generate headlines, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports takes a look at the variety of new treatments — generally grouped under the header of orthobiologics — that pitchers, teams, and medical professionals have turned to in an effort to avoid the necessity of going under the knife. Stem-cell therapy and platelet-rich plasma treatments are now increasingly being deployed throughout the game, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll prove effective. You’ll certainly want to give this piece a full read to understand the state of the science. Those interested in the general subject will also want to read up on the surgical alternatives to the traditional Tommy John approach to torn ulnar collateral ligaments, as we recently discussed here.

Here’s the latest on some injury and health matters around the league:

  • Veteran Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton is headed for a visit with his surgeon after feeling pain in his recently repaired left knee, as Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram was among those to report on Twitter. It’s unclear as yet how serious a concern the latest knee issue is, though it’s far from the first time that Hamilton has dealt with problems in that joint. The 35-year-old, who last appeared in 2015, is in camp on a minor-league deal. He has been expected to compete for a reserve role as a left-handed-hitting option in the corner outfield, at first base, or in the DH slot.
  • There’s promising news on Orioles closer Zach Britton’s potential oblique issues, which came to light yesterday. He told reporters, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (links to Twitter), that he’s not overly concerned with the issue and would still be available to throw were it the regular season. Britton’s comments largely echo those made yesterday by manager Buck Showalter, serving to further reduce the volume on the alarm bells. The key southpaw adds that he finds it encouraging that he has not experienced any pain while throwing.
  • Mariners righty Steve Cishek has picked up a ball for the first time since his hip surgery last fall, as MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. For now, he’ll only throw lightly off of flat ground every other day, though hopefully he’ll ramp up from there. “It felt pretty good, surprisingly,” said Cishek. “There’s some discomfort, but the joint has to get used to that motion again. I was surprised how good it actually felt.”
  • Likewise, Mets third baseman David Wright is only beginning to throw the ball, though in his case too it represents an important first step. As Mike Puma of the New York Post reports, manager Terry Collins says it’s likely that Wright won’t take to the field until the middle of March as he continues to work back slowly from serious back and neck issues. Wright is expected to receive opportunities to hit, likely on the minor-league side of camp, in the interim. New York is understandably taking a cautious approach to the veteran. While it still seems unlikely he’ll be ready for Opening Day, the hope may be that he can return to strength in time for MLB action in a relatively early stage of the coming season.
  • Mets righty Zack Wheeler is back on the bump and was able to throw thirty pitches today without incident, as Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News tweets. He, too, will surely be handled with kid gloves after a slower-than-hoped return from Tommy John surgery and some elbow discomfort earlier this month. It’s a good sign that Wheeler has been able to return to the mound relatively swiftly, though it remains anyone’s guess just how much the club will get from him in 2017.
  • There’s some cautious optimism in Braves camp about the health of lefty Paco Rodriguez, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports. Though Rodriguez “has understandably shown occasional signs of rust” as he works back from his own TJ procedure, writes Bowman, the health signs have been encouraging. Atlanta agreed to a $637,500 salary with Rodriguez to avoid arbitration, seemingly leveraging the possibility of a non-tender to secure a deal that fell below MLBTR’s projection of $900K.
  • Likewise, Braves righty Dan Winkler is attempting a return, though in his case it’s from a somewhat scarier elbow fracture, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains. The 27-year-old, who had already battled back from Tommy John surgery, faced a much different recovery process after his second procedure. Now, he’s working on refining his delivery to avoid future problems. Because of the time he’s missed, the 2014 Rule 5 draftee still must stay on Atlanta’s active roster for about two months in order for the organization to take full control of his rights.
  • Twins righty Kyle Gibson is also seeking to make mechanical changes this spring, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports. The 29-year-old, who’s set to earn $2.9MM through arbitration, is seeking to tamp down persistent shoulder problems. As Berardino writes, a new training regimen has been designed in order “to teach Gibson’s arm to pronate properly at the end of his delivery” and thus “keep the humerus from rubbing on the shoulder’s connective tissues.”

Rangers Re-Sign Josh Hamilton

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12:09pm: Hamilton intends to try his hand at first base, as MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets. Presumably, he could also factor in the corner outfield and DH mix. The organization has been rumored to be pursuing alternatives at first and DH, where Joey Gallo and Jurickson Profar currently rate as the top options on the depth chart.

11:38am: Texas has announced the deal. Hamilton will earn at the league-minimum rate if he makes it to the majors, Heyman tweets. That’s not surprising, of course, as Hamilton’s free-agent deal ran through the 2017 season. Most of his $30MM salary will be paid for by the Angels, though the Rangers did also take on a total of $6MM (for the 2015-17 seasons) when they acquired Hamilton.

11:18am: The Rangers have wrapped up an agreement to re-sign one-time star slugger Josh Hamilton, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). A deal has been expected since late in 2016.

Hamilton’s minor-league pact will give him the right to opt out on April 1 if he has not yet been added to the MLB roster. He’ll obviously hope to earn a spot in the major-league mix during spring camp, but it’s not known whether he’d look to pursue an opportunity elsewhere if Texas doesn’t offer him a big league job to open the year.

There remain many questions facing the 35-year-old Hamilton, who was expected to play a significant role for the Rangers last year but ended up requiring consecutive knee surgeries. The veteran outfielder made a brief and largely uninspiring appearance with Texas in 2015, after he was acquired from the Angels, but hasn’t put together a full season since 2013.

While Hamilton didn’t maintain his All-Star-level production upon leaving the Rangers to join the Angels in 2013, he did manage to put up a .255/.316/.426 batting line — good for a 110 OPS+ — during his two years in Los Angeles. If he can return to that sort of hitting, he’d likely be a solid piece for the Rangers, though talent has never been the lone issue. Hamilton, after all, has long dealt with balky knees and battled substance abuse, and he’ll need to maintain his overall health in order to be a productive member of the organization.

 

Rangers Likely To Re-Sign Josh Hamilton

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DEC. 28: Re-signing Hamilton to a minors pact is a “formality” now that he’s been cleared by the Rangers’ medical staff, writes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. Hamilton will still have to earn his way onto the Major League roster in Spring Training, though.

DEC. 23: The Rangers are “likely” to strike a deal to re-sign veteran outfielder Josh Hamilton, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Team doctors are said to have taken a look at Hamilton’s surgically repaired left knee and determined that he should be ready to go next spring.

Of course, the expectation at this point is that Hamilton will need to battle for a roster spot as a minor-league signee. The 35-year-old never managed to play last year, as he ultimately required two procedures to address ligament damage in his knee. He was released in August, with both team and player suggesting at the time that a new deal was contemplated.

Hamilton’s most recent MLB action came in 2015, when he returned to the Rangers after the Angels cut bait on his ill-fated free-agent contract. He managed to take 182 plate appearances, producing a .253/.291/.441 batting line with eight home runs.

While it seems that there could still be power in Hamilton’s long-feared bat, he’ll need to turn things around in the on-base department to return to productivity. He struck out 52 times while drawing only ten walks in his recent run with Texas.

Hamilton did post above-average offensive numbers during his two seasons with the Halos before that, though, even if his .255/.316/.426 slash fell well shy of hopes when he inked a five-year, $125MM to head to Los Angeles. He received that huge contract after posting five consecutive All-Star campaigns with the Rangers from 2008 through 2012.

Beyond the performance and health questions, Hamilton’s record includes a troubled history with substance abuse that stretches to the early stages of his professional career. But Texas was willing to take on the associated risks when it accepted a small piece of the remainder of his contract with Los Angeles, and obviously feels that he has held up his end of the bargain since coming back into the fold.

Josh Hamilton To Work Out For Rangers Soon

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The Rangers are planning to watch free-agent outfielder Josh Hamilton work out prior to Christmas, reports Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. If everything checks out, Texas will consider signing Hamilton to a minor league pact, GM Jon Daniels tells Wilson.

The Rangers released Hamilton back in late August, although at the time reporters (including Wilson) explained that the decision was largely procedural. Texas released Hamilton to free up a 40-man roster spot and also to create the opportunity for Hamilton to be re-signed and play with the team early in the 2017 season.

[Related: Texas Rangers Depth Chart]

Hamilton still has one year remaining on the five-year, $125MM contract he signed prior to the 2013 season (the Angels are on the hook for nearly all of his 2017 salary), and if Texas had waited to release him until after the season and then re-signed him to a minor league deal, Hamilton would’ve been ineligible to play in the Majors with Texas until May 15 of next year. Releasing him in August created some needed 40-man move and also allowed for the possibility that Hamilton is healthy enough to contribute in a part-time role early next year. It’s been expected that the Rangers would ink Hamilton to a minor league deal for quite some time, as the player himself even told Wilson that he was expecting as much prior to his initial release.

Now 35 years of age, Hamilton underwent a pair of knee surgeries last season that proved to be more serious than initially expected. Hamilton underwent surgery to repair some meniscus damage in early June last year, but upon beginning the operation, Dr. Walt Lowe discovered enough damage to the anterior cruciate ligament that an ACL repair was also required. That surgery effectively ended Hamilton’s 2016 campaign — a season in which he was never able to take the field in the Majors.

Once one of the game’s most feared sluggers, Hamilton’s tumultuous career has been in a downward spiral since he signed in Anaheim four years ago. While he delivered respectable production in his first two years with the Halos — .255/.316/.426 — Hamilton never came close to the heights he reached with the Rangers, for whom he batted .305/.363/.549 from 2008-12. He was traded back to Texas in 2015 after a relapse into substance abuse seemingly fractured his relationship with Angels management. The Rangers are on the hook for just $2MM of Hamilton’s 2017 salary, while the Angels are paying him more than $26MM in the final season of his deal.

If Hamilton does land with the Rangers, he certainly won’t be counted on for any kind of regular role with the team. Rather he’d have to earn a roster spot with the club come Spring Training, and even if he were to make the team, it’d likely be as a part-time outfielder and designated hitter. The Rangers currently have Shin-Soo Choo, Carlos Gomez and Nomar Mazara lined up in the outfield, but the DH situation is a bit murkier. Joey Gallo could potentially fill that role, though it’s been reported this winter that the team would ideally like Gallo to open the season in the minors. Choo could also line up as the team’s DH next year and beyond, though they’d need to bring in some additional corner outfield help in that scenario.

Rangers Place Josh Hamilton On Release Waivers

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The Rangers announced that they have activated outfielder Josh Hamilton from the 60-day disabled list and placed him on unconditional release waivers. Per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (links to Twitter), the move is somewhat procedural in nature, as the club could look to sign him to a minor league deal after the season, and Hamilton has previously expressed a willingness to return in such an arrangement. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, in fact, tweets that Hamilton said last month that he expected to be released and sign a minor league pact this winter.

Hamilton missed the entire 2016 season due to a knee injury that proved to be more serious than initially believed. Hamilton was originally diagnosed with a torn meniscus but ultimately underwent an ACL reconstruction as well. He appeared in 50 games with Texas last season, batting .253/.291/.441 with eight homers in 182 plate appearances.

“We plan to monitor Josh’s progress as he continues his rehab process and is medically cleared this winter,” GM Jon Daniels explained to reporters (Twitter link via Grant). “Given the rules in place, releasing him before the end of this month allows us to keep the door open to extending the relationship in the future.” Had the Rangers waited until the offseason to release him, Hamilton wouldn’t have been eligible to return to the Major Leagues with Texas until May 15 of next season.

Josh Hamilton’s Knee Injury More Serious Than Initially Believed

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Earlier today, Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton underwent the season-ending knee surgery that the team had previously announced, but as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, he required not only a repair of his left meniscus (which was previously known) but a reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee as well. Per Wilson, the surgeon who performed the surgery, Dr. Walt Lowe, had cautioned the team that an ACL repair might be necessary last month. He wasn’t certain, however, until seeing the extent of the damage to the ACL first-hand during today’s operation.

Hamilton was already known to be out for the season, but Wilson speculates that the new injury could not only end Hamilton’s time with the Rangers, but could ultimately spell the end of his career. The Rangers have a number of outfield options on the books for next season — Shin-Soo Choo, Delino DeShields, Nomar Mazara and, potentially, Joey Gallo and Lewis Brinson — and the team is only on the hook for $2MM of the $30MM that Hamilton will receive in the final season of his five-year, $125MM pact. (The Angels, who initially signed Hamilton to that deal, will pay the remainder.) As such, it’s possible that the Rangers could simply elect to release Hamilton and let younger alternatives receive the bulk of the time in the outfield next year, according to Wilson. Then again, GM Jon Daniels did voice back in May that the team was committed to Hamilton for the 2017 season.

There’s a chance that Hamilton could be ready for Spring Training next season, but the 35-year-old’s ability to recover from such a massive knee operation at this stage of his career remains to be seen. If he is indeed ready for the spring, however, it’s hardly inconceivable that he could latch on with a new club on a minor league pact.

Hamilton’s best years as a Major Leaguer came with the Rangers, highlighted by his 2010 AL MVP honors, and he returned to the club after a dramatic split with the Angels. Hamilton made an immediate impact with the Rangers in returning to Globe Life Park last season, doubling in a two-hit game in his first home game with Texas and then homering twice in his second game back in Arlington. However, his ultimate contributions to the 2015 Rangers were more modest, as he batted .253/.291/.441 with eight home runs in 182 trips to the plate before hamstring and knee injuries brought his season to an early end.

The Rangers have managed to thrive in spite of the loss of Hamilton, nearly a full season-to-date without Choo and significant regression from DeShields thanks largely to the emergence of Mazara (a strong Rookie of the Year candidate) and the the brilliant play of shortstop-turned-outfielder Ian Desmond. If Choo isn’t able to return to health and/or DeShields continues to struggle, the Rangers could eventually turn to Gallo and Brinson, though the latter has struggled in Double-A in 2016. Gallo isn’t a natural outfielder, but with the Rangers having extended Adrian Beltre for another two seasons, it seems all but certain that he’ll be required to move off of his natural position, third base, if he is to factor into the Rangers’ long-term plans.

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