A SECOND LIGHTNING ROD

If Major League Baseball had a big enough headache with Alex Rodriguez's return to the Yankees, the Josh Hamilton saga gets even more down the rabbit hole.

Hamilton has had his personal demons that have been documented in his minor league transgressions. During the spring, there was an alleged relapse. MLB wanted to suspend Hamilton under its substance abuse policy, but Hamilton and the union objected to any punishment, citing that Hamilton would have been a first timer under the major league CBA.

Hamilton avoided suspension after an arbitrator sided with him over Major League Baseball. His Angel teammates are waiting for his return, but during the home opener, Hamilton had no locker.

Angels owner Arte Moreno is upset with Hamilton. Moreno cited a provision in Hamilton's Angels contract that gave the club special remedies against any relapse. Since those type of contract provisions are not allowed under the CBA, the players union is quite upset with the Angel's owner.

Local reports indicate that  it’s a really ugly situation on a number of different levels that’s being made worse and worse by Moreno every time he opens his mouth. The entire Angels organization is handling this as poorly as possible in terms of public relations, managing the clubhouse, and - most importantly - treatment of people. It is clear that the Angels probably want to void Hamilton's deal, or the very least, not allow him to play for the Angels. This is the corner that the Yankees were pinned in all of last year with A-Rod.  But Rodriguez demanded his comeback and the team honoring his contract, which has a $6 million payment the next time A-Rod hits a HR. The Yankees will loathe writing that check.

But since teams cannot put in their own "morals" clauses into player contracts, the Angels are stuck with an underperforming, highly paid, broken down outfielder who has zero trade value.