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Los Angeles Angels All-Star outfielder Josh Hamilton is in the process of divorcing his wife, Katie, and filed for the divorce in late February, when reports of his drug relapse began to surface.

Naheed Rajwani of The Dallas Morning News reported on Hamilton’s situation Monday, adding that the former American League MVP listed 34 requests in the petition. Katie Hamilton denied the petition last month, so it appears there is considerable work to do before the terms are amicable.

Hamilton’s father-in-law, Michael Dean Chadwick, had been instrumental in helping the talented ballplayer combat his substance-abuse issues involving alcohol and other drugs, per Rajwani. Katie Hamilton has always been supportive of her husband as he’s ultimately salvaged an impressive MLB career.

Although he won’t face a suspension for his relapse, Josh Hamilton has yet to participate in a game for the Angels during the 2015 campaign. He’s also been recovering from early February surgery on his right shoulder.

Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson, who was also teammates with Hamilton as a member of the Texas Rangers, recently spent time with Hamilton and provided a positive update.

“I feel like he’s in a good place and he’s doing the right things,” said Wilson of Hamilton, per FoxSports.com. “He’s going through the counseling stuff that’s good for him. I feel like he’s ready to go in that regard.”

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports 1 reported Saturday that L.A. has actively sought solutions to the Hamilton situation, which could include either a trade or a contract buyout.

Since starring for the Rangers in Arlington, Hamilton has seen his production drop in two prior seasons for the Angels, with a WAR of just 1.5 (h/t Baseball-Reference.com). That’s a far cry from the 33-year-old veteran’s apex of 8.7 in that category in 2010.

If Hamilton can’t get back on track and start living up to his huge contract, perhaps the buyout is an option L.A. will explore. The risk involved with Hamilton has always been an underlying stipulation, yet his transcendent talent is undeniable.

The Angels haven’t been overly supportive of Hamilton. Considering his mansion is up for sale, he’s going through a divorce and hasn’t met expectations in L.A., the writing may be on the wall for Hamilton’s exit from the club.

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Outfielder Josh Hamilton‘s future with the Los Angeles Angels is very much in question, but the two sides are in talks to reach some type of resolution.

Continue for updates.

Trade, Buyout Potentially on the Table

Saturday, April 18

Despite having yet to play a game in 2015, Hamilton has dominated headlines since it was revealed that he had a substance-abuse relapse during the offseason. Shortly around that time, Hamilton also filed for divorce from his wife, Katie, according to Naheed Rajwani of The Dallas Morning News. 

The 33-year-old slugger was not disciplined by Major League Baseball, but he is out as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury. Even when Hamilton is ready to play, though, the Angels may not welcome him back.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Los Angeles is looking into trading him:

That could be difficult due to Hamilton’s bloated contract, which is why buying him out is also a potential option, albeit a somewhat unlikely one:

Hamilton’s play dropped off last year, as he hit just .263 with 10 home runs and 44 RBI while missing nearly half the season, but the biggest concern may relate to his off-field issues.

With that said, Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson is confident Hamilton has moved past the relapse, per ESPN.com.

“I feel like he’s in a good place and he’s doing the right things,” Wilson said. “He’s going through the counseling stuff that’s good for him. I feel like he’s ready to go in that regard.”

There is no question that Hamilton’s lefty bat is a huge addition to the Angels lineup when he is healthy and playing up to his potential.

The organization seems to be hesitant to bring him back, though, which means it is possible Hamilton has played his last game for the Angels.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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1. NL West: Change, Money and Bubble Gum

One week in, and you know what’s more fun than Furious 7 meets Coachella?

The National League West.

Grab a fistful of Dubble Bubble, because that’s the first checkpoint for a summer of bubble-blowing good times: Padres home opener Thursday, ninth inning, Giants center fielder Angel Pagan at the plate and suddenly he and San Diego catcher Derek Norris are jawing and must be separated.

The occasion?

Pagan flipped a wad of chewed bubble gum at Norris, who immediately took offense.

Pagan pleaded that he meant to toss it further, but the wad stuck to the pine tar on his glove and stunted his throw.

Norris went ballistic because, well, as he told reporters afterward, “I don’t come into center field and throw gum at him when he’s playing defense.”

Great point.

Chomp, chomp.   

The Padres, for the first time in a decade, are actually trying.

The Dodgers, after two seasons of 90-plus wins and a postseason in which Clayton Kershaw still failed to get them to their first World Series since 1988, are rebooting.

The Giants are hurting.

The Diamondbacks rebuilt their front office with new baseball ops guru (and Hall of Famer) Tony La Russa and new general manager Dave Stewart.

And the Rockies, who ever knows what they’re up to?

“We know what the vision is,” new Dodgers shortstop Jimmy Rollins says. “The guys who were brought in here, we know why we were brought in.”

New Dodgers baseball operations boss Andrew Friedman, special assistant Josh Byrnes (the deposed Padres GM) and GM Farhan Zaidi completed 10 trades in 25 days in December. They completely rebuilt up the middle with Rollins, second baseman Howie Kendrick, rookie center fielder Joc Pederson and catcher Yasmani Grandal.

“I knew we had talented players,” Rollins says. “But we have a good team.”

That’s what the Padres think, too—of themselves. Their winter made the Dodgers look like they were standing pat, and new GM A.J. Preller carried it right up to Opening Day eve, when he acquired the game’s best closer, Craig Kimbrel, in what otherwise was an exchange of bad contracts. The Padres got the Artist Formerly Known at B.J. Upton (he’s Melvin now), and they unloaded outfielder Cameron Maybin and Carlos Quentin.

So add Kimbrel to Norris, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Wil Myers, Will Middlebrooks and James Shields in what might be the most stunning and dizzying offseason that one club has ever had.

“The vibe is completely different,” says starter Ian Kennedy, who strained a hamstring in his first start of the season on Thursday and now is on the disabled list. “You have these high-profile guys that people know. A lot of people didn’t know Padres players before.”

Not even the folks running the witness protection program.

“Our pitching staff was so under the radar, but we had the second-best ERA in the National League last year,” Kennedy continues, accurately speaking of the 3.27 ERA the ’14 Padres produced. “You get Kemp, who’s been on national TV so often and is an all-time Dodger, Justin Upton, an All-Star, Wil Myers, who is supposed to be a superstar player like Mike Trout, Norris…all of these people have been to the playoffs.

“The vibe, everybody is excited.”

Including fans who have leaped off the bandwagon by the thousands in recent years as previous ownerships alienated them. The four-game series against the Giants just completed set a Petco Park attendance record of 168,181, and the new Padres surely won some more hearts.

Though he hasn’t homered yet, Kemp is off to a roaring start at .367/.406/.533 through Sunday with three doubles and a triple. He pumped his fists and emitted a primal scream following a key triple Sunday—that burst of joy/enthusiasm could be the poster moment of the first week.

“I feel better now than I felt in the second half last year,” Kemp told Bleacher Report in the final days of spring camp. He batted .309/.365/.606 with 17 homers and 54 RBI in the second half last year in looking like the old Matt Kemp before significant shoulder and ankle surgeries.

“My legs weren’t all the way under me, as far as being able to run the way I wanted to run,” Kemp continued. “Now, I’ll be able to do some things I couldn’t do. People don’t understand: Microfracture surgery is pretty serious.”

Then there are the Giants, who you might recall have won three World Series titles in five seasons and have no plans to surrender despite their recent track record of odd-year disappointments and a stunning array of injuries.

Right-hander Matt Cain (flexor strain, right forearm) is out for several weeks, an early blow the Giants did not see coming. Outfielder Hunter Pence (broken arm) won’t return until May. First baseman Brandon Belt missed most of the first week with a groin strain. Manager Bruce Bochy was forced to juggle his rotation when right-hander Jake Peavy‘s lower back locked up.

“It’s been one thing after another since we started spring training,” Peavy says. “That being said, it’s early and we’re going to hold the fort down. It’s the Next Man Up mentality.

“This team has a quiet confidence. Hopefully, we find and create some depth out of this situation.

“But there ain’t no way these teams (Dodgers and Padres) ain’t panning out. Both have a lot of talent. Both have a lot of exposure. We’re not banking on these teams not jelling. We expect the Dodgers to be a great team, as always, and we expect the Padres to be good.

“But this group of guys we have knows how to compete, and we expect to.”

In the season’s first six days, the Padres’ Shields outpitched both the Dodgers’ Kershaw and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner.

So pass the bubble gum, and settle in. This summer more than any other, you never know what’s coming next in the NL West.

2. Jackie Robinson Day: Stand and Salute

You can make an argument—and I will, every year—that the way baseball blows out Jackie Robinson Day is one of the game’s finest moments.

Former commissioner Bud Selig spoke often of the game’s responsibility as a social institution, and those roots trace back to the Dodgers, Branch Rickey and Robinson smashing the color barrier on April 15, 1947.

That moment, incredibly, came 17 years before the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It banned racial segregation in the schools, the workplace and the voting booths.

That baseball was so far ahead of the rest of the country absolutely is worth remembering and celebrating. Especially now, with a steady string of sickening moments—Sanford, Florida; Ferguson, Missouri; New York; South Carolina—that suggest we’re still not where we should be in this country.

So MLB will hold Jackie Robinson Day on Wednesday, and players throughout the game will wear No. 42 in his honor. The official celebration will take place in Dodger Stadium with the Civil Rights Game between the Mariners and Dodgers. Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Don Newcombe, a former teammate of Jackie’s, and Joni Campanella, daughter of the late Dodgers’ catcher Roy Campanella, will participate too.

Players wearing No. 42 traces back to 2007—the brilliant idea of Ken Griffey Jr. It’s true. Griffey that year asked Selig if it would be OK to wear No. 42 in tribute on Jackie Robinson Day, and when Selig said he would bring the idea to Rachel Robinson, Griffey asked if he could make that call himself.

In the end, Selig loved the idea so much he asked Griffey whether he would mind if baseball expanded that idea to every player.

Now, Griffey has another idea that would build upon Jackie Robinson Day.

“I look at guys who have done so much, and not only for baseball. The next one I’d like to see is Roberto Clemente, everyone wear No. 21,” Griffey told me when we spoke this winter, referring to the former Pirates outfielder who was the first Latin American and Caribbean player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Clemente was killed in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972, while en route to delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Baseball already presents the Roberto Clemente Award at the end of each season to an elite player who also is personally involved with community work, an honor that dates back to 1973.

“I understand we give an award at the end of the year, but maybe if we do it on [Roberto Clemente Day], and honor the things that he did for other people, the things that they all went through,” Griffey continued. “It could be on the last day of the season because that was the last day he played.

“As a baseball player, we look forward to those types of celebrations. Whether it’s wearing a throwback uniform for the Mariners, or whatever, we look forward to being able to wear uniforms of certain guys who mean so much to the organization. It’s a lot of fun to be able to do that and celebrate them.”

3. The Angels Should Be Ashamed

If Angry Arte Moreno, owner of the Los Angeles Angels of We Should Be Embarrassed, insists on blaming someone for the current Josh Hamilton mess, he should look in the mirror.

It was Moreno who signed Hamilton to a five-year, $125 million deal even amateur armchair GMs could have told you would be a horrendous contract.

Nobody could have predicted that Hamilton would descend back into the hell of cocaine, as he reportedly did, according to the New York Daily News, but the possibilities were there. The entire world knew of his history of addiction. Age 31 when he signed the deal, Hamilton also had a tremendous amount of wear and tear on his body.

This was a high-risk deal from Day 1. And now that the Angels have been burned with two years of underperformance followed by the reported cocaine relapse, for them to take the public offensive against Hamilton is outrageous. This is a guy who clearly needs help, and that phony family atmosphere the organization promotes has never looked so inauthentic.

“It defies logic that Josh’s reported behavior is not a violation of his drug program,” read a statement attributed to club president John Carpino.

“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,” read a statement attributed to GM Jerry Dipoto.

Both clearly were serving as henchmen for Moreno, who stayed in the shadows until Friday, when he said he couldn’t guarantee Hamilton would play for the Angels again.

It is difficult to imagine the Angels being an attractive destination for future free agents when the team is so quick to trash the ones who disappoint.

4. Phillies Closer: Baby sitter Needed

Three years into a four-year, $50 million deal, Philadelphia closer Jonathan Papelbon continues to take his employers’ millions with little investment of his own.

“I don’t really feel much like a Phillie,” Papelbon told Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe last week.

And: “What is a Phillie? A horse? That’s what it is? I feel like a horse.”

It’s tempting to say Papelbon should be seen and not heard. Yet that’s dangerous, too: It was last September when he grabbed his crotch in the direction of Philadelphia fans.

Of course, their ungrateful closer isn’t the only thing the Phillies have to worry about. Heading into this week, first baseman Ryan Howard and second baseman Chase Utley were a combined 5-for-39 (.128) with 13 strikeouts.

5. Never Dull with Yankees and Red Sox

When the Yankees scored seven times in the first inning against Boston Sunday night, it was the first time the Yanks scored seven or more first-inning runs against the Red Sox since Aug. 15, 1954, when Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra were in the lineup and Tom Brewer started for the Red Sox, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

And in Friday night’s 19-inning, 6-5 Boston win, the two teams combined to use 17 pitchers and throw 627 pitches.

Every player on Boston’s 25-man roster played except infielder Brock Holt and starting pitchers Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello and Justin Masterson.

The Yankees used 21 of their 25-man roster, everybody except CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Masahiro Tanaka and Adam Warren.

6. Springer’s Got Some Springs

If you missed Houston right fielder George Springer’s sensational catch against the Rangers on Sunday, you can fix that mistake right now.

7. Weekly Power Rankings

1. Home Openers: Ah, the promise of warm weather and summer vacations. A promise no other sport can make.

2. Tigers: Undefeated Tabbies (heading into the week) savage Minnesota and Cleveland to tune of MLB-best plus-31 run differential. Did someone say 1984?

3. Royals: Quick, start the stopwatch to see which is quicker—center fielder Lorenzo Cain chasing down fly balls or frisky starter Yordano Ventura’s mouth chasing down Mike Trout.

4. Stanozolol: The old-school steroid of choice makes a comeback, knocking out Jenrry Mejia (Mets), Ervin Santana (Twins), David Rollins (Mariners) and Arodys Vizcaino (Braves) for 80 games each.

5. Cubs bathrooms: After Opening Night debacle, the team brings in 72 portable toilets. And still no Kris Bryant.

 8. Superhuman Player of the Week

Yes, the Tigers finally lost Monday. But that won’t happen often if this continues:

9. How Do You Like Ned Yost’s Managing Now?

Look at these Royals go:

9a. Rock ‘n’ Roll Lyric of the Week

Happy Jackie Robinson Day….

“We’ll walk hand in hand
“We’ll walk hand in hand
“We’ll walk hand in hand, someday
“Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
“We shall overcome, someday”

— Pete Seeger, We Shall Overcome

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. 

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia commented on the Josh Hamilton situation on Monday, offering his opinion of the team’s star player.      

Scioscia talked about what he feels is a frustrating situation and added that he hopes to personally meet with Hamilton to get an update, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times:

The Angels have a three-game series with the Houston Astros coming up this weekend. With Hamilton rehabbing his injured shoulder in Houston, it would seemingly be a good time for Scioscia and Los Angeles’ front office to check in on the 33-year-old.

DiGiovanna reported that no such plans have been made, however.

Hamilton was already set to miss the first part of the regular season as he recovers from right shoulder surgery. Following his reported drug relapse, though, his relationship with the team has become somewhat fraught.

Angels owner Arte Moreno alluded to the idea that the team might try to recoup some of the money owed to Hamilton after his relapse, but the MLB Players Association has denied that Los Angeles had any sort of language in Hamilton’s contract about a potential drug relapse.

This has been one of the most notable off-field stories of the young 2015 MLB season, and as Hardball Talk’s Craig Calcaterra tweeted out, it will be interesting to see if the Angels attempt to block Hamilton’s path to the majors once he is 100 percent again.

Since Hamilton’s contract runs through 2017, the Angels will either have to find a way to make this all work, or they’ll end up eating a lot of dead money parting ways with Hamilton.   

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim owner Arte Moreno addressed media members Friday regarding outfielder Josh Hamilton’s contract and possible language in it protecting the team in case of a drug- or alcohol-related relapse. 

Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register passed along details:

Moreno claimed Friday, hours before the Angels’ home opener, that the language was allowed if approved by MLB and the MLB Players’ Association. He refused to specify what kind of language was included in Hamilton’s deal.

Moreno’s comments come after an arbiter ruled last week that Hamilton would not be suspended by Major League Baseball. The 34-year-old outfielder, who had a history of drug and alcohol addiction when the Angels signed him to a five-year contract worth $125 million in December 2012, self-reported a relapse in February.

Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times added more context:

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports provided a statement from the MLBPA, which denies the validity of Moreno’s comments:

After it was announced that Hamilton was not suspended, Angels team president John Carpino and general manager Jerry Dipoto publicly declared their disapproval of the decision. Had Hamilton been suspended, Los Angeles would have received some relief from the base salary of $23 million he is owed for the 2015 season.

Hamilton played in 89 games for the Angels during the 2014 campaign and hit .263 with 10 home runs and 44 RBI. It was a far cry from the superstar who drilled 43 homers and drove in 128 runs on the Texas Rangers in 2012. In five seasons with Texas, Hamilton hit at least 25 home runs four different years and at least 32 home runs three different times.

He has yet to demonstrate that type of productivity since signing with the Angels before the 2013 season.

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For a while there, it was possible that Josh Hamilton would not be seen on a Major League Baseball diamond in 2015.

Now we know he’ll be playing ball as soon as he can, and that has ramifications for the Los Angeles Angels and, eventually, for MLB and the MLB Players Association.

Various outlets, including ESPN, reported in late February that Hamilton had suffered a relapse earlier in the offseason, which was said to involve cocaine and alcohol. In light of the 33-year-old’s history with substance abuse, the word a few weeks back was that a yearlong suspension was in play.

That won’t be happening. MLB announced Friday that an independent arbitrator ruled Hamilton will not be punished at all:

If for no other reason, this announcement is surprising for its timing. It’s only been a day since MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in an MLB Network Radio interview (via Mike Oz of Yahoo Sports) that he expected a decision on Hamilton’s situation “shortly after” the season opens this Sunday.

But the real surprise? That Hamilton is getting off scot-free.

That seemed unlikely in light of how, unlike his alcohol relapses in 2009 and 2012, Hamilton’s latest relapse involved cocaine. That’s forbidden as a drug of abuse in baseball’s Joint Drug Agreement.

There was also Hamilton’s past to consider. As Nathaniel Grow noted at FanGraphs, MLB hypothetically had grounds to treat Hamilton’s latest relapse as the fifth offense of the drug treatment program that he first entered in 2003. As such, it did indeed have grounds to consider a suspension as long as a year.

But while all of this is worth acknowledging, let’s be real. It may be surprising that Hamilton is getting a free pass, but it’s not outrageous.

Morally speaking, letting Hamilton off the hook is the right call. There were many who argued as much when word of his relapse first came out, and their arguments had an overarching message.

Hamilton’s relapse was the latest reminder that he’s an addict. If the idea is to help addicts get over their addiction, retribution isn’t going to get you anywhere. Helping them is more effective, not to mention more compassionate.

Not punishing Hamilton is also the right call from a practical perspective. This case hinged on the arbitrator’s interpretation of Section 4(C) of the Joint Drug Agreement, which Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk summed up like so:

Under that section, a player is said to have committed a violation if the player (a) refuses to submit to evaluations and followup tests; (b) “consistently fails to participate in mandatory sessions with his assigned health care professional”; (c) his health care professional tells Major League Baseball that the player is not cooperating; or (d) the player tests positive for a drug of abuse.

As Calcaterra noted, none of these applied to Hamilton. Baseball didn’t catch him either in the act or through a positive test. What happened instead was he gave himself up and has been cooperating with MLB ever since.

As a result, he’ll get to play baseball in 2015. And while that’s news that doesn’t necessarily make the Angels’ year, it should at least help them on the field.

Hamilton is most certainly not the player he once was. After averaging a .912 OPS and around 30 homers a season between 2008 and 2012, he has only a .741 OPS with 31 home runs in the first two campaigns of his five-year, $125 million contract with the Angels.

He’s also coming off of a season in which injuries limited him to 89 games, and his health woes are ongoing. He had surgery on his right shoulder in early February, and the team put his recovery period around 12 weeks. He’s going to miss at least the first month of the 2015 season.

But as dire as Hamilton’s situation appears, he can still help.

Though his bat has declined mightily in the last two seasons, the 110 OPS+ he’s racked up qualifies him as an above-average hitter. And even if the Angels can’t or don’t want to use him as an everyday player, his recent track record against right-handed pitching says he would actually make a solid platoon player.

The Angels are already loaded with quality hitters even without Hamilton, of course. But because they have the look of a team that will need to hit a lot to make up for a pedestrian pitching staff, having even so much as an extra part-time bat can’t hurt their quest for a second straight AL West title.

As for Hamilton’s relationship with the Angels, it seems the repair work that needs to be done there goes beyond whatever he can do on the field.

The Angels don’t sound thrilled about Friday’s ruling. Though general manager Jerry Dipoto vowed in a statement issued on the team’s official website to do “everything possible to assure he receives proper help for himself and for the well-being of his family,” Dipoto also made it clear they “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.”

That doesn’t sound like a team brimming with relief. That sounds like a team that was already fed up and is now annoyed that it’s missing out on saving some money on a suspension.

Per Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com, here’s Angels president John Carpino to drive the point home:

This recalls the conversation everyone was having about Hamilton before news of his shoulder surgery and relapse hit. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and Gonzalez both opined that him actually serving out the three remaining years of his contract with the Angels was unlikely.

That sounded reasonable at the time. It sounds even more reasonable now. The bridge between Hamilton and the Angels already appeared to be weakening. After the Angels’ remarks about Hamilton’s suspension, you can practically hear it cracking.

Speaking of which, another thing you can hear cracking right now are the knuckles of Manfred and MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark. Not that they needed another battle, but now they have one to fight when the war over the next collective bargaining agreement begins, a pact that expires Dec. 1, 2016.

MLB indicated as much in its initial statement when it vowed to “seek to address deficiencies in the manner in which drugs of abuse are addressed under the program in the collective bargaining process.” If the outcome of Hamilton’s case is any indication, that points toward the league pursuing more precise language that puts the final decision in similar situations squarely in the hands of the commissioner and the commissioner alone.

That would mean a big fight for Clark to go with the other big fights he’s already set for.

Those include a revision of the service time rules that the union (rightfully) thinks have screwed over Kris Bryant and so many other young players. They also include possible changes to the qualifying offer system, and a dispute over the players’ share of league revenue. As Grow noted at FanGraphs, player salaries have gone from 56 percent of the league’s revenue in 2002 to just 38 percent last year.

Surprising though it was, the decision to not punish Hamilton is justified from a moral and practical standpoint. Though it’s likely to forever be referred to as “controversial,” the arbitrator made the right call.

But make no mistake, real controversies are coming in the fallout. Though things will die down when the focus shifts to baseball upon Hamilton’s return, shortly after is when Friday’s decision figures to spur heated action in the Angels front office and in the offices of both Manfred and Clark.

The league has a decision on Hamilton’s fate, but this saga isn’t over.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton will not be suspended for his substance abuse missteps in the offseason, according to a statement from Major League Baseball:

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported the Angels’ statement on MLB‘s decision:

MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez had more from Angels president John Carpino:

CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman noted that credit for Hamilton escaping discipline belongs to the MLB Players Association:

Reports of a potential punishment first began surfacing after Hamilton met with MLB officials on Feb. 25. A source told Rosenthal the meeting concerned a disciplinary issue “worse” than performance-enhancing drugs. Heyman later confirmed with a source that Hamilton admitted to officials he suffered a relapse with cocaine.

The top overall pick in the 1999 MLB draft by Tampa Bay, Hamilton never made the majors with the Rays due to a number of off-field problems—most notably drug addiction. After bouncing in and out of the Tampa Bay system for years, he eventually rejuvenated his career after Cincinnati, via the Chicago Cubs, acquired him in the 2006 Rule 5 draft.

After a year with the Reds, Hamilton spent five seasons in Texas, emerging as one of baseball’s best hitters. He won the 2010 AL MVP, made the All-Star team five times and belted 100 home runs over his final three campaigns with the Rangers. In 2012, Hamilton addressed a relapse with alcohol related to a family matter.

The Angels signed Hamilton to a $125 million contract before the 2013 season. The move has largely been a disappointment, with Hamilton hitting only 31 home runs his first two seasons in Los Angeles. Injury limited him to 89 games last season.

Hamilton underwent offseason shoulder surgery, and his status is unclear for the beginning of the 2015 regular season. However, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported that, “Hamilton is ‘working hard’ to get back on field, sources say. But there’s no specific timetable for his return.”

It’s hard to tell exactly when Hamilton will be ready to take the field for the Angels, but the team now knows that he’ll be able to play once his shoulder heals. That provides a boost for a team already considered amongst MLB’s biggest contenders.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter

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At the center of the latest controversy for Major League Baseball is an aging, embattled, injury-prone, high-priced former MVP. And for once, it isn’t Alex Rodriguez.

While Rodriguez is busy getting in at-bats and fielding as many questions as grounders in New York Yankees camp after being suspended for all of 2014 as part of the league’s investigation into Biogenesis, Josh Hamilton is embroiled in his own scandal. But it’s more than that.

For Hamilton, a 33-year-old with a well-known history of abusing alcohol and drugs, it’s a battle for his life and well-being even more than it is a battle for his baseball career.

The Los Angeles Angels outfielder has had an extremely difficult, trying offseason, first undergoing surgery to repair a shoulder that had been bothering him since the end of last year, and then—here’s where that controversy comes in—dealing with the aftereffects of the surprising (but not altogether shocking) news that he had suffered a relapse.

Mike DiGiovanna and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times initially reported the incident, aspects of which were confirmed by others:

The latest details on Hamilton’s relapse comes from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, who writes:

Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told Yahoo Sports that Hamilton has told people his latest spiral began around Super Bowl weekend after a fight with his wife. Because he cannot carry cash or credit cards, Hamilton wrote himself a check to cash. He wound up at a strip club and used cocaine. Before his next test, Hamilton admitted to using drugs, which prompted the meeting with MLB in New York that the Los Angeles Times first reported, sending Hamilton’s case into the public view.

Those in and around baseball now await word on how the league will handle this and what sort of punishment Hamilton will face. A decision is expected before Opening Day and could come as soon as this week (i.e., mid-March), according to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports.

But this decision is anything but simple, and the process has been anything but confidential, as it is supposed to be.

For one, there’s the fact that an arbitrator will need to evaluate the evidence and make a determination about whether Hamilton needs to enter a rehabilitation center or should be suspended for his reported relapse after the four-person treatment panel failed to come to a consensus or even a three-to-one majority.

The panel that was supposed to make the call—and which consists of a pair of representatives each from MLB and the MLB Players Association—deadlocked at two votes apiece, as the Los Angeles Times reports.

For another, if the findings call for a suspension, there’s the question of how long Hamilton should be held out and whether he should be treated as a first-time offender or a multiple offender.

As to the fact that all this has been made public, here is the statement the MLBPA released, via Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com:

It is regrettable that people who want to see Josh Hamilton hurt personally and professionally have started leaking information about the status of his treatment program and the confidential processes under our Joint Drug Agreement. These anonymous leaks are cowardly, undermine the integrity of our collectively bargained agreements and in some instances have been wholly inaccurate.

The Major League Baseball Players Association will use every right we have under the collective bargaining agreement to make sure Josh gets the help he needs, and the fair and confidential process to which he is entitled.

Clearly, this has become an unfortunate situation for everyone, including new commissioner Rob Manfred, who will have to weigh all matters and angles in handling this.

The thought is that Hamilton likely will be forced to miss at least 25 games, per Rosenthal and Morosi of Fox Sports. But if he’s treated as a multiple offender, then the punishment would be more severe, perhaps up to the entire 2015 season.

As a player with a long and disturbing history of addiction problems and drug use, Hamilton’s case is rare in baseball. After being selected No. 1 overall out of high school in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Rays, he was suspended from the sport altogether from February of 2004 to June of 2006 because of his problems.

That Hamilton was able to overcome everything and contribute anything at all on the major league level—let alone be one of the game’s biggest stars for a half-decade from 2008 to 2012—makes his career even more remarkable and this situation even more atypical.

An argument could be made that keeping Hamilton away from the game too long may be detrimental to his well-being, considering that baseball provides him with all kinds of day-to-day activities to keep him busy and in line, from hours of work in the gym or batting cages to busy travel itineraries to the games themselves.

Buster Olney pointed this out on his Baseball Tonight podcast, citing Darryl Strawberry, another longtime big league star who battled addiction but who found some solace in the clubhouse and on the field while playing with the New York Yankees in the mid to late 1990s.

Perhaps the best—or at least, the most mindful—option, then, would be to suspend Hamilton for, say, 25 games without pay. In a way, that almost would amount to a time-served sentence, since he already is expected to be out until May or June while recovering and rehabbing from surgery on his shoulder, per DiGiovanna.

All that said, the financial factor is one that makes this even stickier. Hamilton’s $25 million salary, as part of the five-year, $125 million deal he inked with the Angels in December of 2012, is among the highest in baseball, and especially steep for a player who—let’s not ignore the facts—wasn’t very healthy (89 games) or even all that good in 2014 (.263/.331/.414).

Were Hamilton to be suspended, he would lose his salary for as long as he’s forced to sit out, according to DiGiovanna and Shaikin. Given the circumstances, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing for the Angels, who could use the saved funds elsewhere. It’s not something that should be a major consideration here, but to pretend it isn’t one is naive.

“If [Hamilton is] in rehab,” Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPNDallas.com writes, “he would be paid his full salary for 30 days and half his salary for the next 30 days. If he’s suspended, he would not be paid.”

Whenever he’s allowed to come back to baseball, Hamilton should be, as a result of his latest mistake, subject to even more frequent drug testing than he already has been. Not for punitive reasons—merely to make sure he’s not hurting himself or his family or friends.

“[Hamilton] served a 28-month suspension that ended in June 2006 for violating the league’s substance-abuse program,” Taylor reminds. “One of the conditions of Hamilton’s reinstatement in 2006 was that he undergo drug testing three times a week.”

Addiction, after all, is a disease, a battle that isn’t “won” or “lost” but fought daily, constantly even.

As Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated writes:

This is a pivotal moment, not so much for the Angels’ season or Hamilton’s career, but for Hamilton’s future as a human being, a husband and a father. It is also a pivotal moment for MLB to lead by example by considering drug addiction as an illness that needs to be treated as such, and by viewing drug addicts not as criminals who need to be punished, but as victims of their own bad choices who need to be shown compassion and helped back to health.

Obviously, this is a controversy and a very sensitive one at that. There is no “right” way, no precedent to handle something that will impact Hamilton and those around him. But there very well could be a wrong way.

Ultimately, whatever Manfred and MLB decide to do with regards to punishing Hamilton for his most recent transgression, the most important thing is that Hamilton’s life and future—not his past—are the priorities.

Statistics are accurate through Monday, March 9 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

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It appears that $125 million man Josh Hamilton could be headed for another rough season in 2015.

Limited by injuries to just 89 games last season, the Los Angeles Angels slugger is now scheduled for surgery this Wednesday to repair the AC joint in that same right shoulder.

That according to tweets from the team’s official Twitter account:

The immediate question that jumps to mind is why this was not taken care of immediately following the season, considering that same right shoulder cost him 11 games in September. But let’s instead focus on what this means for Hamilton going forward.

The former No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 draft joined the Angels in the offseason leading up to the 2013 season, signing a five-year, $125 million deal as the top bat on the market.

That came just a year after the Angels shelled out $240 million over 10 years to sign Albert Pujols and another $77.5 million over five years for starter C.J. Wilson.

However, that high-priced trio has only managed to produce one disappointing American League Division Series exit in three years, and at least for Hamilton, it looks like 2015 could bring more disappointment.

The 33-year-old outfielder has fallen a long way from his time with the Texas Rangers, when he was one of the most productive run producers in the league and an All-Star in five straight seasons.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports may have put it best when news broke that Hamilton was headed for surgery:

Hamilton was entering his age-32 season when he joined the Angels, so there was plenty of reason to think he had at least a few more prime seasons in the tank.

However, there were also red flags of the injuries to come, as he topped 140 games in just two of his five seasons in Texas and averaged just 129 games per year.

Injuries were not the issue during his first season with the Angels, as he played 151 games. It was a simple lack of production.

In fact, his statistical drop-off from 2012 to 2013, when you consider that he had an identical number of plate appearances (636), is staggering.

Despite those struggles, a bounce-back season seemed to be in the works this past year when he opened the season hitting .444/.545/.741 through his first eight games.

A thumb injury quickly put a stop to that, though, and he missed 48 games after undergoing surgery to repair a torn UCL.

He returned on June 3 and managed to stay relatively healthy until his early September shoulder injury, but he would hit just .247/.310/.386 with eight home runs in 308 at-bats over that 80-game span.

With the thumb injury behind him and a full offseason to prepare for 2015, Hamilton had high hopes for a big turnaround.

Just over a week ago, Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com tweeted about his expectations for Hamilton’s upcoming campaign:

Now a more realistic goal seems to be simply getting healthy and staying on the field, and that’s not exactly the sort of thing a team wants to be shooting for when it’s set to pay a player $23 million.

To the Angels’ credit, they were proactive this winter despite a roster that looked more or less complete heading into the offseason.

One of the pieces they picked up was outfielder Matt Joyce in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, and he gives the team a player capable of stepping into an expanded role and producing.

When Hamilton went down last year, the team was forced to go with a combination of Grant Green, Collin Cowgill, J.B. Shuck and Raul Ibanez in left field, with none of them providing much in the way of consistency.

Now they at least won’t have to mix and match on a daily basis, though they will likely still opt for a platoon, considering Joyce hit just .147 with a .408 OPS against left-handed pitching last year.

With a late start to the regular season, Hamilton will be playing catch-up once he debuts, and that does not bode well for a player coming off of back-to-back disappointing seasons.

At this point the Angels are still on the hook for $83 million over the next three years, so they will give him every chance to turn things around.

However, it’s hard not to think this latest setback is just the start of another disappointing season for a player who has fallen a long way from his days in Texas.

All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference.com, unless otherwise noted.

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Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton will undergo surgery Wednesday to repair damage to the AC joint in his right shoulder and is expected to miss three to eight weeks, the club announced Tuesday.

The team expects him to miss six to eight weeks according to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. 

Hamilton, 33, will likely miss a good portion of spring training while recovering. He was expected to report for spring training with the other position players on Feb. 24. Pitchers and catchers will report on Feb. 19. 

A five-time All-Star, Hamilton is entering the third year of a five-year, $125 million contract with the Angels. To put it mildly, the first two have been disappointments. After averaging 28.4 home runs per season during his five-season run with the division rival Texas Rangers, Hamilton’s belted only 31 thus far in Los Angeles.

He struggled through a nightmare 2013 campaign and was seemingly on his way to a comeback in 2014 before injuries reared their head. A torn thumb ligament cost him nearly two months in April and May, and discomfort in his right shoulder kept him on the shelf for most of September. While he came back for the Angels’ abbreviated postseason run, he was hitless in 13 at-bats, as the Kansas City Royals advanced in a three-game sweep.

That lack of production has left him the brunt of scorn from many Angels fans, who took to booing him regularly at points this past season. Having the surgery now—just a couple weeks away from spring training—rather than the offseason likely won’t do much to improve that chilly relationship.

But the good news is he should be back for the beginning of the regular season. If the procedure gets him right and he begins performing like the MVP-caliber player he was in Texas, this will all be forgotten. If not, the increasingly albatrossian deal will look more so as the Angels rely on Mike Trout and others to pick up the slack.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

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