The Angels have been at odds with Josh Hamilton, and few have been more supportive of the outfielder than C.J. Wilson.
Wilson was teammates with Hamilton in Texas before the two joined the Angels in successive years. He empathizes with Hamilton’s addiction battles and also stands up for his teammate partly because of his role as the team’s MLBPA rep.
Many believe the Angels are acting inappropriately with their aggressive tactics against Hamilton, and Wilson says he knows all about that firsthand.
“When the Angels first signed me they hired a private detective to follow me around because they were mad that I was riding motorcycles,” Wilson told the Los Angeles Times’ Mike DiGiovanna.
Wilson says his contract contains many clauses preventing him from potentially dangerous activities such as car racing, motorcycle riding and cave exploration. This came up in the context of Angels owner Arte Moreno saying they have language in Hamilton’s contract preventing the former slugger from doing drugs and alcohol.
Angels GM Jerry DiPoto denied Wilson’s accusation about the private eye.
“That is 100 percent not true,” DiPoto said in response via The Times.
The bottom line in all of this is exactly what Wilson said: if Hamilton were producing, none of this would be an issue. The Angels are just bitter that they made a poor investment that isn’t working out. This is really their fault for guaranteeing so much money to a player they knew was risky.
And memo to the Angels: rather than hiring a private detective to tail a guy after you sign him, why not take care of that ahead of time like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did, that way you can avoid making the bad signings.
