Josh Hamilton Fondly Recalls Talking With Red Sox During Free Agency

There was a time when Josh Hamilton was considered a potential free-agent target for the Boston Red Sox. And Hamilton remembers that as being a special time in his Major League Baseball career.

Hamilton hit the open market after a 2012 season with the Texas Rangers in which he hit .285 with 43 homers, 128 RBIs and a .930 OPS. The Los Angeles Angels eventually signed the former American League MVP to a five-year, $125 million contract, but Hamilton still fondly recalls a meeting he had with Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington at the 2012 MLB winter meetings in Nashville.

“It was just cool to meet them and talk with the guys,” Hamilton, now back with the Rangers, told WEEI.com’s John Tomase after launching two homers Friday against the Red Sox. “It’s been such a prestigious organization throughout the years, a lot of good players come through there. They’ve won some championships of recent. It was basically an honor for me to sit in there and talk with them and think it could be a possibility. It was good. It didn’t work out, but it was good to talk to them.”

The Red Sox never aggressively pursued Hamilton that offseason. Cherington and Co. instead focused on signing several veterans, including Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli, to shorter, less expensive contracts, while Hamilton bolted for a huge payday on the West Coast. The strategy worked for Boston, at least initially, as the Red Sox won the World Series in 2013 in large because of their new acquisitions.

Hamilton since has endured a rough journey. The five-time All-Star flopped in his two seasons with the Angels, ultimately suffering a drug relapse before being traded back to the Rangers last month. There’s no telling how things would have played out if Hamilton signed with the Red Sox before the 2013 campaign, but he clearly holds Fenway Park in high regard no matter which uniform he’s donning.

“It was just good to sit down and talk with them,” Hamilton said, according to Tomase, while reflecting on his conversation with the Red Sox. “You think about places you’d like to go and play, and you get an opportunity to meet with people, when you want to go somewhere like that, just to think about the history that’s been there, that’s what’s always intrigued me, since the first time I walked out of the clubhouse (at Fenway) on the wooden pallets underneath the tunnel and I went to the field.

“That was the only place I ever got nervous, my first season, playing with the Rangers.”

Hamilton looks like he enjoys playing against the Red Sox, as he entered Saturday with 10 homers, 53 RBIs, a .314 average and a .943 OPS in 57 career games versus Boston. Perhaps playing for them would have been fun, too.