As has been expected for months, the Rangers re-signed Josh Hamilton on Tuesday to a minor-league deal. He can opt out of the deal and become a free agent by April 1 if he doesn't make the big-league club and it's for the league minimum (per Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports).
This is all very uninteresting, really. Hamilton is 35, has bad knees and hit .253/.291/.441 in just 182 plate appearances last season.
One item that is interesting to note, however, is Hamilton is actually making $28.41 million this season from his five-year, $125 million deal the Angels inked before the 2013 season. The Angels are picking up $26.41 million of that this season with Hamilton playing against them. That's a bit steep.
As a reminder, Hamilton only lasted two years with the Angels, hitting .255/.316/.426 (110 OPS+) with 31 homers before he fell out of favor. He relapsed on his drug addiction and owner Arte Moreno wanted him gone ASAP. So they essentially gave him back to the Rangers while paying nearly all of his salary.
Though he plays for another team, Hamilton is actually the Angels' highest-paid player this season. Albert Pujols checks in second at $26 million and Mike Trout is next at $20.08 million. Fourth is Ricky Nolasco at $12 million and no one else is in eight figures.
So that's our weirdly fun fact of the day: The Angels are paying someone on another team roughly $6 million more than the best baseball player on the planet.
