When the Angels just kept digging...
If you find yourself in a hole, quit diggin'. - Will Rogers
The Orange County Angels have been in a hole with Josh Hamilton since the 13th of December in 2012, when they gave him a $125 million contract ... and yet somehow they just keep digging.
When Major League Baseball couldn't convince an arbitrator that Josh Hamilton's latest backsliding merited some official punishment, you might have guessed that Hamilton's employers were blindsided by the decision ... even though it was one of just two possible outcomes, and quite a likely outcome at that. I wrote about this before Angels owner Arte Moreno weighed in. Unhelpfully. Again.
But what can Moreno do? I don't think he'll eat the $83 million he still owes Hamilton. Bill Shaikin has another possibility, though:
What if the Angels took Hamilton back but kept him on the bench?
Hamilton would get his full salary, but Moreno would make his displeasure clear with every lineup card in which the outfield was manned by three other guys.
--snip--
No one would dare say Hamilton could be the Angels' best hitter, and not just because Mike Trout works in Anaheim. The Angels could well say they are better off with Hamilton on their bench, and the union could well say his benching would be strictly punitive.
That would be a mess. The union already is livid that the commissioner's office has not launched an investigation into how confidential information about Hamilton's relapse and the subsequent arbitration became public.
The union wouldn't be likely to win this one, for the same reason the union wouldn't likely win a grievance over the Kris Bryant Affair: when it comes to baseball decisions, the arbitrator will nearly always give the club the benefit of the doubt. While it's not at all clear that Hamilton's the Angels' fourth-best outfielder ... it's not clear that he's not, either. In fact, if you look at these projections, Hamilton's essentially tied with Matt Joyce and Kole Calhoun. Sure, you can argue that Hamilton's a better hitter than C.J. Cron ... but an arbitrator wouldn't buy it, because of 2014.
But the benches these days are too short to just bury somebody. Granted, the roster's not ideally constructed: Joyce, Calhoun, and Hamilton all bat left-handed, so a platoon's not in order. But Cron probably shouldn't be playing against righties, which means there is room for all the outfielders if one of them DH's.
I think Moreno's got exactly two options here, either of which could -- but probably won't be, if recent history's any guide -- be handled gracefully: release Hamilton and forget about the $%&@ money; or give him to Mike Scioscia and let the manager decide who should play. I think Moreno's pride won't allow the former, and reality will eventually compel the latter.