Josh Hamilton returned to the site of his best days Monday, rejoining the Texas Rangers in a trade and saying that he never should have signed with the Los Angeles Angels in the first place.
The Angels, clearly, were just as eager to move on, accepting minimal salary relief to shed him.
Hamilton, who has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, had a highly publicized relapse in February, but an arbitrator ruled that Hamilton could not be suspended because he had not violated baseball’s drug agreement with the union. The decision infuriated the Angels’ owner, Arte Moreno, who owed Hamilton more than $80 million from this season through 2017.