Josh Hamilton: The Most Interesting Free Agent In The World

The impending Josh Hamilton contract used to fascinate me. Last year at this time, Hamilton was hitting .900/.910/2.190, a pending free agent, and a fella with a back story that made him different from past superstars on the market.

By the end of the year, though, Hamilton exhibited the cons to his pros, and suddenly the impending contract wasn’t nearly as interesting. He struck out in over a third of his plate appearances in September, committed some memorable gaffes in the outfield, and ended the season with very good, but not gaudy, numbers. He eventually signed for five years and $133 million -- reasonable in length, if not amount.

Edit: The deal is worth $125 million over five years.

Hamilton hit .305/.363/.549 over five seasons with the Rangers, and the 31-year-old hit a career-high 43 home runs last season, including four in one game. On May 11, remember, Hamilton was hitting .407/.463/.873. Right around that point, pitchers stopped throwing him strikes because it turns out that’s what they were supposed to do in the first place, but it was a good run while it lasted.

“If the right bat’s available, we’re going to have to talk about it,” Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said. “We’re going to have several discussions with agents.”

The Mariners scored only 619 runs in 2012, the first time they broke 600 since 2009. The team has been in an offensive slump for years, and a hitter like Hamilton would be an ideal centerpiece to the rebuilding effort.

If you think it’s crazy that Hamilton will get the Prince Fielder deal, you’re right, but it was also fairly crazy that Prince Fielder got the Prince Fielder deal. There’s always that one team …

And in this series, we try to find out what that one team is. But we also put on a spandex leotard bedecked with question marks to channel the MYSTERY TEAM. Or, if not the mystery team, the team that we would want to see make a run at the free agent, if only to make things more interesting.

For contract hounds and roster fetishists, this is a swell time of year. There’s none of that “baseball” stuff to mess things up, for one. And there are free agents and rumors, rumors and free agents, and they’re all bouncing around like electrons in a conductor. There’s a hierarchy of free agents and rumors, too, with a minority of players driving a majority of the rumors. For example, you should expect to hear daily updates on Josh Hamilton, his expectations, and his suitors for the next three months.

It’s started already. And it’s already fascinating.

Actually, strike that. There was a way he could have been more interesting. On May 12, Hamilton hit a solo home run that was his ninth homer in six games. His line to that point: .402/.457/.877. That’s an .877 slugging percentage -- it’d be a good OPS for a corner outfielder, but it was just his slugging percentage. If Hamilton continued with the record-setting season, he would have been an even more interesting case. He was a decent bet for the Triple Crown at one point.

Hamilton’s numbers since June 1: .204/.289/.401. No one really expected him to sustain that pace, but I’m not sure anyone expected him to fall off a cliff.

Since then ... Well, not so much. Even now, Hamilton does lead the American League in both home runs (28) and RBI (78). But since the 12th of May, Hamilton’s got a 236/316/452 line, which isn’t so impressive at all.

And his manager has noticed. Via Tim Cowlishaw, here’s Ron Washington on Hamilton’s struggles:

We’re going to break this up by month, because that’s what’s easiest for me. And we’re going to ignore July, because July just started and can’t tell us anything of value. Let’s begin with Hamilton’s OPS:

April: 1.182

May: 1.187

June: .754

Currently, Hamilton is hitting .402/.455/.866, with 18 home runs and 44 RBI. He’s leading the American League in all those categories, prompting ESPN during Sunday night’s game telecast to ask viewers whether Hamilton will win the traditional Triple Crown (batting average, home runs, RBI).

83 percent of those voting said “yes”.