Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told reporters Monday that Hamilton will undergo surgery on his left knee June 8, ending a season that never got started.
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Hamilton acknowledged during the first week of spring training that he was still feeling pain in the knee he had surgically repaired last year. The team said then, in late Febuary, that Hamilton would have a stem cell injection in an attempt to improve healing in the knee and was targeting a late April return. He did play in one rehab game for Double-A Frisco on April 30, getting two at-bats, but his knee wasn’t healthy enough to continue.
Hamilton, who turned 35 on Saturday, has played in only 139 games since the start of the 2014 season. Even when he has been healthy enough to take the field, his production the past three years has been a shadow of the MVP form he displayed in his first stint with the Rangers. After posting a .913 OPS from 2007 to 2012, he has a .740 OPS since signing his monster deal with the Angels heading into the 2013 season.
