Josh Hamilton contract talks still on hold

February, 12, 2012
Feb 12
3:37
PM CT
The focus for the Texas Rangers and Josh Hamilton remains on his recovery and not on a long-term contract, general manager Jon Daniels reiterated on Sunday.

"The contract is not really the priority with Josh right now -- his health and family are," Daniels said. "We’re not going to preempt that for anything about a contract. Given how close we are, I don’t anticipate that happening before spring training. We all agreed to table things before we got to spring training."

Earlier this offseason, Hamilton had set a date for the beginning spring training to get a deal done. He wanted to focus on 2012 and not his contract once his workouts began.

Hamilton, who had a relapse involving alcohol two weeks ago, went with new staff assistant Shayne Kelley to New York last week to see doctors with MLB and MLBPA. Daniels said he expects Hamilton to be on time for spring training and the slugger has indicated that he's going to arrive early.

Hamilton was at a book signing over the weekend, but did not talk to the media.
Richard Durrett joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He writes about colleges, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. Richard spent nine years at The Dallas Morning News covering the Rangers, Stars, colleges, motorsports and high schools.

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TEAM LEADERS

BA LEADER
Josh Hamilton
BA HR RBI R
.379 18 49 34
OTHER LEADERS
HRJ. Hamilton 18
RBIJ. Hamilton 49
RI. Kinsler 36
OPSJ. Hamilton 1.187
WY. Darvish 6
ERAY. Darvish 3.05
SOY. Darvish 63

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