It hasn’t been made official yet, but from all indications it looks like 5 time All Star Josh Hamilton is coming back to the Texas Rangers. As soon as the stuff happened between Hamilton and the Angels before the season it really only made sense for Hamilton to come back to Texas. It was only a matter of time before the two sides made it happen. Arte Moreno pretty much drew a line in the sand with his many comments about Josh Hamilton after the independent arbitrator ruled that Hamilton could not be suspended. It was clear Moreno was just wanting a way to not have to pay his contract this season and to try to find a way out of it for the last two seasons. The arbitrator ruled that Hamilton had not violated the Joint Drug Prevention agreement and therefore could not be suspended. It looks like the long nightmare for the Angels is over and a possible redemption story for Josh Hamilton is allowed to commence. That is why this trade was made. According to many sources Hamilton is the only player being sent in this trade. The Rangers are picking up the last 3 years of the contract and covering 15 of the last 83 million according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.The Angels will cover the other 68 million. It was thought this would be a way for the Rangers to get out of the Choo contract. It appears the Angels were not interested in trading bad contracts.  They were interested in only one thing and that is getting rid of Josh Hamilton. Now, don’t get me wrong I am not under any illusions about Hamilton’s skills anymore. It has been about 4 seasons since he was an elite outfielder. He has been steadily going downhill since. This is not about that though. It is about a man trying once again to overcome his demons and become a productive citizen and a productive baseball player. There are three things we need to examine here about this trade. We have talk about the baseball impact of this equation, when Josh Hamilton could possibly be available, and what we should theoretically expect from Josh Hamilton this season.

First lets take a look at where he would fit on this team. As far as I am concerned when he proves he is healthy and recovered from his shoulder injury he will come up and platoon with Ryan Rua in left field and hit some at DH. It does make their bench better as right now Smolinski, Peguero, and Deshields are their spare outfielders. It probably will mean Deshields or Peguero will no longer be on this team. Neither one has really done enough at this point to warrant staying on this team. I imagine when he does play Banister will hit him somewhere in the middle of the lineup like at 6 or 7. He still is a threat, but he is going to have to find a way to recover that bat speed that made him one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball from 2008-2012. I will be interested to see if put back into a familiar situation where he is comfortable if he can revert back to the Josh Hamilton of a few years ago.

The second thing is when will he be available. Right now I am thinking at the earliest he would not be available till likely early June. Hamilton is coming off shoulder surgery back on February 3rd and actually that surgery was done by Rangers doctor Keith Meister. It was said at the time he would be back in 6-8 weeks. It has now been 11 1/2 weeks. He did not have any spring training due to the ongoing issues with the Angels. I am sure the Rangers would like to get him a lot of at bats and a lot of time in the field to make sure he is ready. I would imagine they start him out at extended spring in Arizona and then get him into some games in a couple of weeks. From that point when they feel he is ready they will bring him up. I don’t expect him to be helping this team anytime soon. The Rangers are doing this to help them and help the team and he is no help to himself or the team if he is not 100% ready. They will take their time with him and not rush him.

The final thing is what should we expect theoretically from Josh Hamilton. To get an idea lets go back to his last full season which was 2013, his first with the Angels. That season he hit .250, with 21 home runs, 79 rbi’s, and 144 hits. He still has power, it just is a matter of bat speed. Pitchers in the last couple of seasons have just not thrown him anything in the strike zone. The scouting report says a breaking ball down and away will get him out everytime. He can’t reach it and can’t keep himself from swinging at it. His plate discipline will have to improve. He has got to find a way to make up for the loss of bat speed and that could come by not swinging at balls. If he does that and forces pitchers to have to pitch in the zone then he can get back to driving the baseball. If he does not improve his plate discipline he will still see garbage every plate appearance and nothing to hit and will continue to struggle. Marc Mclemore made a good point on the pregame show tonight,will his head be in the game. He has a lot going on in his life right now. A trade back to Texas, a divorce from his long time wife Katie, and having to recover from a damaging relapse. When he is between the white lines will he be able to just focus on the game? That will determine what kind of player he will be.

I really hope he does well. I admire Josh Hamilton not because he has been a great player and because of what he has done for the Rangers, but because he has been so open with his struggles. He is the face of addiction. All of us deal with one addiction or another. It may not be cocaine, alcohol, or heroin. We deal with some addiction that grabs a hold of us and turns us into a person that we don’t recognize. Josh struggles like the rest of us and I hope that he has gotten the help that he needed and I hope that now he can get back to focusing on baseball. I don’t expect to see 2010 Josh Hamilton, but I hope that the Rangers get a player that can help them win baseball games. The AL West is not great this year and if the Rangers can find a way to 85-88 wins they could win the division. I just don’t see anyone running away with it. It is there for the taking and hopefully Hamilton can help this team take a step towards that. This is what I consider a low risk high reward trade. If it doesn’t work out, then the Rangers will buy out the last two years and Josh will probably be done. Hopefully he has urgency to prove that he still has it. This will be the biggest story for this team this season and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.