Josh Hamilton has had a rough go this year.
The former AL MVP spent the winter rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder with his former club, the Angels, but was forced to do it on his own and wasn't given a locker at the Angels' spring training facility in Arizona.
In late April, Hamilton was traded back to the Rangers, for whom he won said MVP and had all of his big years, for basically nothing and without much in the way of expectations. After working his way back without the benefit of spring training, Hamilton showed flashes of what made him such a great player but has dealt with a sore knee throughout his second Rangers stint and spent time on the disabled list.
Now, Hamilton is set to have surgery on Friday back in DFW, the Rangers announced on Thursday afternoon. He won't be placed on the disabled list and the team is hopeful he could be ready to return before season's end as the procedure is a simple "clean-up" of meniscus in his left knee.
In 40 games with the Rangers this year, Hamilton has hit .257 with six home runs and 21 RBIs and was recently activated off the disabled list to serve in exclusively a pinch-hitting role. In fact, he had a big pinch-hit just last week in San Diego to help the Rangers win one of those games.
Again, the Rangers' expectations for Hamilton were basically zilch, so this isn't a killer as he hasn't really done much for them lately in this recent surge, but if they could get him back before the end of the season to where he's able to effectively swing a bat, it could only help matters.
