Los Angeles Angels outfield Josh Hamilton will undergo surgery that keeps him out of game action for six to eight weeks.
The Los Angeles Angels will likely begin their season without outfielder Josh Hamilton after the team announced he’d undergo shoulder surgery on Wednesday that will keep him out of baseball action for six to eight weeks. The surgery will address a lingering issue from late last season which hampered Hamilton’s play down the stretch.
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The operation will be performed on Hamilton’s AC joint on his right shoulder. That side gave him problems all season as Hamilton played in just one of the team’s final 23 regular season games before going hitless in their ALDS loss to the Kansas City Royals.
So why, if there were issues for months, did Hamilton wait this long to seek an operation on his shoulder?
“It didn’t bother him throughout the offseason,” Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said via the team’s announcement. “He went into his offseason training and never had an issue until last week, when he started swinging full throttle again.”
The 2015 season will be the third which Hamilton will play under the 5-year, $125 million contract he signed with the Angels. Hamilton will turn 34 in May, prompting obvious concern from the fan base as to whether these injuries will become a recurring theme over the latter half of his big contract. For now anyways, GM Dipoto isn’t worried.
“Nobody wants to perform more than Josh,” Dipoto said. “We want him to perform, we want him to be good. He knows that, we know that. I can’t sit here and express my frustration that he’s hurt. My primary focus is to get him in a position where he’s no longer hurt, then we’ll work through the baseball performance. I know he had a frustrating season, and some, if not all, can be attributed to this issue.”
The Angels are one of the best teams in the AL and they can withstand a month or more without their slugging outfielder if that’s what it takes for Hamilton to return to full health. The team knows at his age, they can hardly afford to rush a return and risk losing him for an even bigger chunk of that hefty contract.
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