The Dark Side of Josh Hamilton’s Angels Contract

Watch as we take a look back at the rollercoaster career of Josh Hamilton, from his rise to fame to his struggles with addiction. Learn about his time with the Reds, Angels, and Texas Rangers, and how his millions-dollar contract panned out in his baseball career.
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here we go hey everybody welcome to
another episode of swing batter I am
your host Brendan this is my brother
Todd and that is my father and we’re
about to go through another delicious
contract dad what do you have for us
today in the swing batter Rolodex we’ve
got a great player who got overpaid
that’s the nature of our stories but he
was a great player Josh Hamilton is what
we’re going to talk about oh wow Josh
Hamilton I think he made tattoos and
baseball popular no could have he might
have made tattoos popular for the whole
world I do I remember him for that in
his power and I believe he played for
Texas if I remember correctly he was a
ranger for a bit yeah how was how what
was that like well Josh Hamilton started
with the Cincinnati Reds he played one
season with them and he was highly
touted I mean in in just 90 games hit 19
home runs hit
292 um but he had some personal issues
we’ll just say that for now he struggled
with uh what I just call personal demons
and they traded him to the
Rangers which was mostly a mistake
because Josh Hamilton cleaned his life
up he um got
sober and he was everything for the
Rangers one two three four five seasons
he took them to Two World Series and he
was the star of the team um in
2012 Josh at 43 home runs with a 128 RBA
I a 285 average and if you watch the
World Series Josh Hamilton was the guy
that no one could get out he is so
talented just an amazing guy having
great years for the Texas
Rangers um but then he became a free
agent and anytime somebody’s a free
agent they’re going to do they’re going
to go where the dollars are right and
what Happ that usually means the dollars
are
where you can tell us Todd there’s only
three teams that like to pay Anaheim
Angels come a Callin because Jerry
depoto is thinking to himself I got to
put somebody with pooh holes and CJ
Wilson and so what he signed hton after
that performance and he said
well 125 million in 5 years that’s not
bad I’ll do that we’ll give him a
signing bonus at $10 million so his
average salary is $25 million he signed
through 2018 but listen this listen to
some of these features that were tacked
onto the contract um the I love this he
has a full no trade clause complete full
no trade cause he gets access to a
luxury suite at the stadium those are
big money
he gets $2 million that’s donated on his
behalf to charity and it’s all incentive
late and he’s got an MVP half million
dollar World Series MVP $100,000 Gold
Glove Silver Slugger League Championship
Series Allstar um and he’s just got all
these incentives on this thing and he’s
just man it really like just an
incentive Laden cash heavy six
figure six figure
contract well nine figures I’m just
counting
Millions so $125 million over five years
huge money huge money for perk gu I like
the perks of the deal I enjoy the uh
Suite the charity numbers I think a lot
of things he negotiate negotiated in
there that was thinking about a little
spice on that baby right just a little
sprinkle I’m a I’m a big fan of the uh
creative contract negotiations I think
there needs to be more of it in the
world yeah and I think it should go all
the way down so if you’re a teacher and
you’re going to go to a school district
you say hey I have another school
district that’s really interested yeah
so how about you give $100 a month to a
charity of my choice how about you give
me access to the teacher Lounge y uh for
me and my friends my people for this
time to this time I think there needs to
be more of this and in fact I think
there there needs to be more agencies in
the school district realm to uh steal
and take teachers from one organization
to another I had a good year last year
my students all got like above 1,200 on
the
SATs yeah I mean my the club I I hosted
brought in so much dollars to the school
district right and Hamilton’s doing all
that I mean the other thing if you look
back at his ranger years th this is
obviously these Ranger teams were
exciting to play they played in you know
they get they they kind of caught up
Texas and they I mean Texas got so close
in that World Series it was so
depressing um so they he was doing this
after the steroid era because the
steroid era was done by this point he’s
putting up these numbers this guy’s a
raw athlete just a raw athlete extremely
talented so he goes to the angels and
right off the bat dad what happens well
his his numbers dropped he he got an 151
games his home runs went down to 21 his
RBI is at 79 and his Banning average
which is always you know close to 300
suddenly became 250
so they didn’t get their money’s worth
in year one and in year two he got hurt
and he only played in 89 games only hit
10 homers and he had to have surgery so
injured not the production surgery
following it followed with another drug
relapse post surgery so he kind of just
fell off the table he only gave the the
Angels those two years and by then they
realized that this was not going to work
now Todd what happened next after that
well he was traded I mean this is
another situation too where you’re
signing a guy who’s turning 32 years old
so injuries are going to impact them and
then you know personal issues that he
had that came up so he’s traded to Texas
Angels retain an undisclosed amount of
of salary but uh later comes out that
what they retained was somewhere in the
realm
of
um about 2.8 million per year um is what
they retained uh 2015 16 and
17 however his salary in 2015 to 17 was
reduced by 13 and A3 per to make up for
the difference in the state income tax
between California and Texas go
Texas so um yeah so he’s traded to Texas
La retains part of that salary um in 15
and 16 um and then Texas kind of picks
up a base salary of uh $2
million um so did he do anything in the
trade did anything happen I mean was his
career over after Anaheim is that just
how the sad story ends yeah sad story
because on his one year that he was able
to play for the Rangers he only gotten
50 games he only had eight homers he was
done
it was glory
for five wonderful years with the
Rangers two World Series an MVP just
absolute stardom went to the angels and
started to fall apart and and then it
was crumbled and at the age of
34 he was done it was all over for Josh
you know one of the things this makes me
think about and and just kind of
thinking about this is how you
take in into today’s world these guys
are young and immature guys in their mid
20s and early 30s are still pretty
immature um I’m saying that as a guy
who’s rounded second um so when you take
a look at this and everything that
they’re offered in these big cities all
the money all the like the whole package
yeah I’m really shocked that anybody
sustains a long career with any
longevity in consistent performance with
everything that gets thrown at these
guys very few people are telling them
no in fact I think you’re hard pressed
to find anybody in these people’s lives
that are going to say no they’re afraid
to say no there’s too much money to be
made if you just say yes and stroke the
guy’s ego um and so a guy like Hamilton
he gets traded to Anaheim near party
central doing your thing and all of a
sudden the career falls off the edge um
it makes you admire kind of the the guys
that held it together and were able to
keep a career going for a long time
right I in conclusion about the Angels
they gave him a five-year contract and
he played about a year and a half for
them that’s it yeah um I remember the
glory years in Texas when they took such
care of Josh Hamilton I don’t know if
you remember this but when they
celebrated
victories no champagne allowed right
they didn’t want him to touch champagne
even if fell on him so they had
carbonated apple juice is what they had
in the locker room when Josh was in
there they didn’t want him anywhere near
out they took such great care of him and
he did magnificently he was a a hero at
the time it it’s too bad it ended the
way it did for him but I like to
remember the greatness of Josh Hamilton
and being swing batter and looking at
bad contracts the villain in this story
has to be the Angels giving him all that
money and only getting a year and a half
of not much uh of a player so I don’t
know if that makes him a villain but
it’s a bad investment I have a question
about these teams because it seems that
some teams are more repetitive I think
there’s an attitude that like an angels
organization has where they sign you to
professional money you need to be
treated like a professional we’re not
going to assist you anymore where other
teams will have additional coaches
additional folks that are there to help
you where there are some teams who are
like hey we paid you we got this lineup
we we spent a lot of money on this team
you guys should all be professionals you
should know how to carry yourselves I’m
not saying that’s the way the angels are
today or like the Mets organization or
certain organizations that just kind of
come to mind with some bad contracts is
how did they treat these guys in the
locker room was it any different from
one season to the other or was it just
the the age-old question once you get
into your 30s and you sign a brand new
deal you’re just fighting the age you’re
fighting the end time of your career and
so they you’re you’re running away from
it trying to live up to all these
dollars and it’s difficult and then
injuries start to stack up and your
recovery is longer you’re not 20 anymore
you can’t just play 162 games if your
body’s hurting or ailing and we have
these contracts over and over again and
the theme of them is you sign in your
30s for a long period of time and we
have a lot of swing batter contracts
that you can look at right now that are
10 Deals 8year Deals of guys that just
31 32 and they look good right now 33 34
and everyone says diet nutrition all
this other stuff that we’re doing I
don’t doubt it there’s really good stuff
out there but at the end of the day
you’re running from AG yep so I want to
ask our
subscribers when we when Brennan
described that situation person in their
30s long-term contract and all of a
sudden they’re not playing like they
used to
I know you’ve got names send them to us
we’ll be happy to talk about it um one
interesting thing about this contract at
the time the Angels ate 68 million
million dollar for this guy to walk away
which was a record for the amount of
money a team ate for somebody to walk
away $68
million to show you that you never know
what’s going to happen in the world when
he was the hero of Texas became a free
agent and went to the angels who are in
the same division the feeling in Texas
is oh no our star is now with the Enemy
and they’re going to take it to us that
didn’t happen
yep yeah the other thing that I always
laugh about when everyone’s like man
that’s so much money just so everybody
can calm down these owners can pay that
much money and it doesn’t even impact
them they don’t even feel it so I never
once say ah that poor owner had to sh
out so much M never congratulations to
Josh on getting the deal sorry about the
the career not working out the way you
wanted when you signed the deal but at
the end of the day I do not feel bad for
the GM I do not feel bad for the
ownership group I have all four chasing
titles by paying players tons of money
and giving us tons of options to talk
about so that is Josh Hamilton’s episode
Josh congratulations on the deal we hope
life is treating you wonderfully we hope
you’re having a good old time and again
from us to you as the host of swing
batter we look forward to your
suggestions and your comments we have
lots more contracts to go over better on
thank you Todd thank you Dad you’re
welcome have a good
one bye booah in
the an angel oh
[Music]