The Texas Rangers got some disappointing news this weekend regarding Josh Hamilton. Hamilton suffered a setback in his 10-game rehab assignment. Hamilton started the assignment on Saturday with the team’s Double-A affiliate the Frisco RoughRiders. He started in the outfield, and was able to play five innings. While he didn’t light up his stat line the Rangers were encouraged by what they saw during the game, and Hamilton said he felt great afterwards. This left many perplexed the next day when it was announced that Hamilton was being pulled from his rehab schedule due to a setback with his knee.
Josh Hamilton Suffers Setback
Hamilton was traded back to the Rangers at the beginning of last season by Los Angeles Angels. Many will remember the bitter divorce that the Rangers had with Josh Hamilton after he made some disparaging comments about the organization. So fans were surprised when they found out about the return of Hamilton. The deal was a relative steal for Texas as they left the Angels organization paying for most of Hamilton’s contract, and Rangers have benefited tenfold from that deal. Hamilton was limited to 50 games last season because of a bum knee, and missed all of spring training this year making Jon Daniels look like a genius not paying full price for him.
Hamilton proclaimed that he was feeling better than he had in years last week as he was wrapping up an extended spring training which only added to the confusion of him suffering yet another setback. If the original rehab assignment would have went according to plan then Hamilton would have been scheduled to make his return in mid-May. Now with the current set back he must wait five days before he can start over the rehab assignment again pushing his return to possibly an early June return. Jeff Banister was asked about the setback after he found out, and was quoted by Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News as saying, “We’re always concerned with guys that are injured and on the DL. We understand that setbacks do happen with players that on are on the DL that are injured. I don’t put an emphasis on being concerned.”
The Rangers are playing great baseball without Hamilton’s bat in the lineup, but it wouldn’t hurt for them to get his power back at the plate.
