Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton paid a visit to doctors with Major League Baseball and the players’ association in New York, one week after admitting to a relapse with alcohol.
Hamilton visited league doctors with Shayne Kelley, the team’s staff assistant whose job description includes playing a supportive role for Hamilton, according to reports.
The meeting comes one week after Hamilton admitted to a “moment of weakness” when he visited a Dallas restaurant and ended up ordering “three or four” drinks, and then went to another established later in the evening for some more drinks.
“Given what’s happened in the past, at this point it’s at their discretion,” Rangers general manager Josh Daniels said, according to the Associated Press. “I think it’s kind of based on what the doctors find, and what they recommend, whether they feel like this was something bigger.”
During a press conference last week where he publicly apologized for the relapse, Hamilton stated that he didn’t take any drugs that night and noted that he recently had several drug tests.
Hamilton is a recovering drug addict, who early in his career was suspended for more than three years while he was in the Tampa Bay organization. But Hamilton has managed to turn his career around, winning the AL MVP in 2010 and contributing to a team that has won the last two AL pennants.
The AP reported that Hamilton has worked out in Texas to prepare for the season.
Also hanging over the situation is Hamilton’s contract. The slugger can be a free agent at the end of the season, and the Rangers have halted their contract negotiations with Hamilton.
“Things happened that me, personally, I’m not proud of after I drank, and they are personal and are being handled as that,” Hamilton said during his press conference.
“When you’re doing this, you don’t mean to hurt anybody,” he added. “You only think you’re hurting yourself. But as I know, you’re hurting a lot of people.”
