Josh Hamilton signed a 5-year, $125 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels earlier today. This not only has important implications for the Angels (who lost Zach Greinke to the Dodgers a few days ago)but also on their division rivals, the Texas Rangers. Hamilton was one of the Rangers' best hitters last year and he'll now be contributing to a team Texas will almost certainly be battling with for the division title or a Wild Card spot next season.
Overall, I like this move by the Angels. Maybe it's because we saw two 10-year, $200+ million contracts get dished out last year (one of them by the Angels), but this and the Greinke deal seem very reasonable.
The main thing I like with this Hamilton contract is the length of the deal. Hamilton will be 37 by the end of this contract, which will definitely be past his prime but not so late in career that we should expect him to be at or below replacement level. Will he be the 4+ win player we've seen him be every full season he's had so far in his career? Probably not, but if I'm the Angels, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make as long as he provides a very productive first two to three years of the contract.
Even if he completely falls off the cliff, this won't be like the Alex Rodriguez contract with seemingly no end in sight.
Hamilton also fills a need. Torii Hunter left the Angels for the Tigers earlier in the off-season, leaving the Angels with some less-than-ideal options for two of the three outfield positions.
Currently, the Angels' depth chart has Mike Trout in left field, Peter Bourjos in center, and Mark Trumbo moving from third base to right field. Trout would be in center on almost any other MLB team but Bourjos is maybe the only player in the majors who's better defensively in center than Trout. The problem is, Bourjos is not a very good hitter, so he'd be giving back a lot of his defensive value with his poor hitting and on-base skills.
Trumbo is the opposite of Bourjos, a very powerful (albeit impatient and inconsistent) hitter who is not good defensively. Moving him from third base to right or left field wouldn't mask his defensive deficiencies.
The switch-hitting Alberto Callaspo is not a bad hitter and is better suited to play third base than Trumbo, although the Angels would probably rather platoon him with Trumbo at third and Howard Kendrick at second than play him at third every day.
Vernon Wells is also an option to start in one of the corner outfield spots, but the Angels don't want to get into a situation where Vernon Wells starts in one of the corner outfield sports. He's Vernon Wells.
So Hamilton makes everything look much less troublesome for manager Mike Scioscia. It's still not going to be easy for him to decide what to do with Bourjos, Trumbo, and Callaspo, but this is a good problem to have. An outfield with Trout, Hamilton, and Trumbo would be fearsome offensively, although pretty average defensively. The same outfield with Bourjos instead of Trumbo would still be good offensively and elite defensively. Scioscia can't really go wrong.
And I haven't even mentioned how good Hamilton is, yet. His worst OPS in any of the last three seasons was .882 (in 2011) and his 2010 MVP season was incredible. He doesn't walk a ton and he strikes out a lot (career 19.7% strikeout rate), but he hits dingers. Lots and lots of them.
Now, he is going from one of the best home ballparks for hitters in the AL to one of the worst, so he probably won't hit as many home runs in LA but that doesn't mean he'll only hit 20. Prince Fielder went from a good hitters' ballpark to a bad one last year and still hit 30 homers. Adrian Gonzalez hit 30-40 dingers basically every year he played in San Diego. Poor hitters' ballparks don't always mean that certain players won't hit a bunch of home runs.
This isn't a cheap deal, by any means, but the Angels are getting an excellent hitter for what looks to be the rest of his most productive years. Hamilton's contract is half as big as the one Pujols signed last year, so if Hamilton does stop performing, the Angels won't be stuck paying him for a ridiculous amount of time.
The key factor is injuries. If Hamilton misses huge chunks of the next five seasons, this deal will look horrendous, but if he can avoid the big injuries and play at least 120 games per year, the Angels will be glad they signed him.
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