Thought you were going to have a nice relaxing weekend of Angels baseball did you? Think again because the Josh Hamilton situation is escalating quickly. The proverbial shit hasn’t quite hit the proverbial fan yet, but with all the news coming out about Josh and his life, you might want to put on one of those biohazard suits just in case. You don’t want to get any in your mouth.
We all knew that Hamilton and the Angels were going to have to meet this weekend, what with the Halos playing Houston, where Josh currently lives, and all. Nobody knew what was going to happen, but it figured to at least help break the current stalemate. The meetings started out innocently enough with some teammates meeting him for lunch and coming away encouraged, via Alden Gonzalez at MLB.com:
Based on their conversation, Wilson believes Hamilton’s latest relapse — which occurred late in the offseason and reportedly involved cocaine — was a “very tame scenario” compared to what he went through as a Minor League player in the Rays organization. He said Hamilton is “100 percent functional” with his addiction, “in a good place” and “doing the right things.”
“It’s my 100-percent opinion that Josh is not a risk to himself or anybody else,” Wilson added. “That’s what I feel having known him for eight years. That’s the closest thing I can get to a factual opinion.”
Great. Glad to see that Josh is doing well and living healthy. Whatever happens with the team, at least he seems to have put himself back together.
Then word came out about management meeting with Hamilton. Surely this would be a more difficult meeting since that is where the real animosity is. After dinner with Josh, Mike Scioscia had this to say, via Mike DiGiovanni at the LA Times:
“We feel that there’s really no clarity that he’s getting the help he needs,” Scioscia said in an interview with MLB Network Radio on Friday morning. “That’s a major concern. Hopefully the frustration will start to evaporate as Josh gets through his first physical rehab of getting his shoulder where he needs to be.”
Well, that’s not encouraging, but it might just be the team taking a hardline stance with Josh because they are trying to set him up for a legal battle. I don’t know that Scioscia would really be a pawn in such a scheme though, so maybe there are some questions about the support network Hamilton is utilizing right now.
Still, nothing really negative has come out about Hamilton being upset with the team, right? Oh, wait…
Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton has put his mansion-estate in Newport Coast on the market for $16.5 million.
That seems like a red flag. Selling your home in the area where your team plays seems like the opposite of committing to your team. It seems even more puzzling when your wife is supposedly going to be a cast member on The Real Housewives of Orange County. Not having a house, much less one in Orange County seems slightly problematic as far as the criteria that show go.
Perhaps things between Hamilton and the Angels have really passed a point of no return? The team has all but said that they want him gone. They are trying to redact his existence from the stadium and stores. If Josh got the message and wants to be done with them, selling his house in lieu of a trade or release makes sense. It turns out that might be the case, via Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:
As the Los Angeles Angels continue to publicly distance themselves from outfielder Josh Hamilton following his self-reported substance-abuse relapse, the team is in talks aimed at resolving their dispute, FOX Sports 1 MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal reported Saturday.
A number of scenarios are being explored, including trades, but nothing is close to completion. A buyout for Hamilton would appear to be one possibility, but the players’ union generally frowns upon players devaluing contracts. The Angels owe Hamilton $83 million over the final three years of his five-year, $125 million contract.
As the post says, nothing is imminent and a lot of different scenarios are on the table. The mere fact that the sides are even talking about a resolution shows that this situation really might be too far gone as far both sides are concerned. It is pretty clear that Josh and the Halos are headed for a divorce.
Speaking of which, via Jeff Fletcher of the OC Register:
According the court documents, Hamilton filed for divorce in late February, around the same time that news of his relapse became public.
Hamilton’s filing including a series of restrictions on Katie, mostly regarding their children, according to the paper. In March, Katie rejected his requests. The couple has since filed a mutual injunction in which they agreed not to communicate, and Hamilton is prohibited from visiting any of their three homes: one in Newport Coast and two in Texas.
I guess this explains the house being for sale. Considering that a dispute with his wife led to his latest relapse (and the previous relapse, I believe), this shouldn’t be surprising news, but it could certainly give the Angels even more cause for concern as it inserts another element of instability into Josh’s life, which is not good for someone who needs stability to manage his addiction. It certainly doesn’t sound like this is an amicable situation either seeing how Josh is prohibited from communicating from his wife or visiting any of their three homes.
This has gone from worrying about how and when the Angels would resolve this situation, to worrying if there is a resolution to this situation that won’t throw Hamilton’s life into further disarray. This really is “the Josh Hamilton situation” now, not “the Angels and Josh Hamilton situation.” While teammates seem to think he is in a good space, there is clearly a lot of moving parts to what exactly that space even is now. He’s got to focus on doing what is right for him and his recovery. Whether that is the right thing for the Angels or not shouldn’t matter at this point.
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