Josh Hamilton's free agency is coming.
If you're an avid Dallas sports fan, as I am, you're in for the longest free agency period since, well, this whole Deron Williams thing.
But even Williams' decision, who will hopefully decide if he'll come home to play in Dallas or stay in Brooklyn to hangout with Jay Z, won't be able to touch what we're going to go through as Rangers fans.
One of my favorite movie moments is in The Grey with Liam Neeson. At the beginning, they're in a plane and it crashes. Men are dead everywhere, and they find one who is fatally wounded but is still alive.
Neeson talks him through the process.
"You're gonna die, that's what's happening," he says softly. "It's okay. Look at me. Keep looking at me. It's alright. It'll slide over you. It'll start to feel warm. Nice and warm. Let it move over you. Let your thoughts go. All the good things. All the good things."
I wish I could put what I'm about to say as gracefully and comforting as Neeson does it in the movie, but I can't.
Josh Hamilton is probably going to leave the Rangers. It may be in a trade before the year is over, or it may be in free agency with the Rangers getting nothing in return.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports thinks Hambone will want $200 million or more. It's a high price, but certainly not unreasonable.
Hamilton turned 31 years old in May. Matt Kemp of the LA Dodgers was given an eight-year, $160 million dollar extension last year. Jayson Werth, who's with the Washington Nationals, signed seven-year, $126 million dollar contract just before he turned 32, just as the All-Star outfielder Hamilton will do.
With the type of year, and really the career he's put together in Texas, Hamilton definitely deserves that or more. He's an AL MVP, and ALCS MVP, and a proven winner on a big stage as he played through a few injuries in the last two postseasons.
That being said, the Rangers won't give it to him. They don't need to. With their stock of top prospects in their farm system and so much talent already on their roster, there's no reason to pay so much for such a high-risk, high-reward situation.
Do I think he's gone? Unless something changes in his mind, I think he chases the money to some random team that's hopefully not in the AL East division or the AL at all.
But with what he's done here and his past, there's always hope. Last month's Sports Illustrated published a cover story on Hamilton talking about numerous things, but starting with his relationship with Rangers' manager Ron Washington.
Washington tested positive for cocaine back in 2009, and can easily relate to Hamilton's struggle for sobriety. The two regularly talk before and after games, and obviously at any other random times that they want.
Is that, along with the life that Hamilton has set up in North Texas (he and his family live in the Grapevine/Colleyville area) enough for the Rangers to hope for a hometown discount?
I doubt it. In the words of Liam Neeson: It's alright. It'll slide over you. It'll start to feel warm. Nice and warm. Let it move over you. Let your thoughts go. All the good things. All the good things.
