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Does anyone really know what happened to C.J.?
(I don't)
Does anyone really care?
If so I can't imagine why
(about time)
We've all got enough time to cry
Apologies to Chicago for stealing their lyrics, but they seemed oh so fitting. Former Rangers turned into medical pin cushions C.J. Wilson and Josh Hamilton are two big reasons why Arte is probably scared to death of any more large contracts. They also could be the reason why Arte may refuse to go after upcoming big free agents in the next few years like Manny Machado, etc.
I'm sure some care about C.J. Wilson. He has his fans and by many accounts (though not by most here on HH), he seems to be a nice/great guy. I even ran into a friend of his who helps with his charity and he confirmed that Wilson is an awesome dude and even got me a signed bobblehead.
But what happened to Mr. Straight Edge Racer? Will he play baseball again? Wilson turned 36 this coming off season and has a few years left in him at best. Baseball is not an easy sport, let alone one to come back to after being out a year - just ask Tim Lincecum. Wilson has this quote on his page LeftyLefty:
"BASEBALL IS A DREAM JOB, AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF MY LIFE."
Does Wilson have plans to return to this dream job? Who would sign him? Does he even have what it take to pitch at the major league level still? In his last season with the Angels, Wilson put up a 3.89 ERA, 1.242 WHIP and struck out 110 in 132 innings pitched. Not bad, but he hasn't thrown in a game since July of 2015 which means next April will be 21 months since his last big league start - and he will be 36 years old.
You'll be hard pressed to find ANY news about Wilson's plans to return to baseball. Last off season he famously posed all kinds of pictures and videos of his training, but since July this year? Nothing. I scoured the Internet (for at least 5 minutes) to see if I could gain any insight. Here is what I found: Not much, but I did find this recent gem:
This is about as much insight as you can find into Wilson's plans. He says he is rehabbing ALL day long Monday through Friday, so apparently does have an interest in returning to his "dream job".
Also, apparently he doesn't take well to hecklers on his Twitter feed:
There you have multiple reports of him blocking people in a short amount of time. And no he did not respond to the tweet asking if he still plays baseball, which is a question pretty much everyone has - including myself.
Either way, the Angels have 20.5 million coming off the books in short order thanks to Wilson's contract FINALLY ending, and he is no longer ours to worry about. Love him or hate him - that boy gone. Now Hamilton on the other hand? Yeah we got one more year of that douchebag.