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At some point this winter, a team with money to spend and an opening in the outfield for a big left-handed bat will make Josh Hamilton a very wealthy man. With the Winter Meetings approaching and some big names already off the board, the baseball world is wondering “When?” and “How Wealthy?” Hamilton’s home run totals and 2010 MVP season make him one of the most enticing talents on the market, but his age, injury record, history of substance abuse, and performance away from the hitter’s parks he’s called home give general managers plenty of reasons to think twice before committing to a long-term contract.

We can tack on yet another concern to that long list of red flags: Hamilton is not a patient hitter. Over the course of his career, he’s struck out at an above-average rate and walked at a (barely) below-average rate, despite the fact that pitchers have plenty of incentive to stay away from his power. Last season, his tendency to swing (and chase) grew much more pronounced, while his contact percentage plummeted.

Because Hamilton doesn’t add any value via the walk, most of his offensive performance hinges on what happens when he makes contact. The outcome of a batted ball is dependent on two things: speed, and quality of contact. Speed peaks early—perhaps even before the age at which Hamilton made it to the majors—but the early 30s are when bat speed starts to slip and reaction time suffers. If Hamilton had better command of the strike zone, his ability to take walks could compensate for his inevitable declines in other areas. As it is, his offensive value is closely tied to skills that soon start to fade in free agents of a certain age.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the six-year, $85.5 million extension a somewhat similar player, Adam Jones, received from the Orioles. Jones walks less often than Hamilton and hits for less power, but both players generally fit the low-walk, high-power profile, with roughly the same career strikeout rate.

To see what effect a low walk rate might have on how a player ages, I looked for hitters with power production similar to Jones’ through May (and, as it happens, Hamilton’s) and divided them into two groups, one for those who walked in less than 10 percent of their plate appearances and another for those who made it over that mark.

What I found was that after a certain age, the low-walk hitters aged worse than the high-walk group. Not only did their production per plate appearance suffer a steeper drop, but their playing time tailed off more quickly, too. Because Jones was still just 26 when his extension was signed, I concluded that despite his impatient profile, the deal made sense for Baltimore:

Low-walk power hitters don’t start to suffer relative to high-walk power hitters until their age-32 seasons. After age 32, Jones won’t be the Orioles’ problem, so they can enjoy his prime production and let someone else overpay for what could be an unforgiving decline phase later.

Hamilton’s employer, however, won’t have that luxury: his prime production is already past, and his decline phase is about to begin in earnest. According to BP’s John Perrotto, Hamilton’s asking price as of earlier this month was seven years and $175 million. Here are Hamilton’s statistics from 2012, along with the stats projected for his next seven seasons by BP’s projection system, PECOTA:

Year

Age

PA

TAv

WARP

2012

31

636

.307

3.9

2013

32

571

.294

3.4

2014

33

567

.291

3.2

2015

34

561

.287

2.9

2016

35

551

.280

2.5

2017

36

537

.271

1.9

2018

37

519

.259

1.1

2019

38

496

.243

0.3

These projections don’t incorporate the potential effects of Hamilton’s past struggles with substance abuse or build in any risk of a relapse, since we can’t quantify those factors precisely. Suffice it to say that if we could, they wouldn’t improve his odds of aging well. Even without accounting for those variables, though, PECOTA projects that Hamilton would be close to a replacement-level player by the end of the seven-year contract he covets, totaling 15.3 WARP over the life of the deal.

If we set the current going rate for a free-agent win at $5 million and factor in a conservative five percent annual inflation rate, a win would cost $7 million on the open market by the end of the deal. All told, that 15.3 WARP would translate to just over $85 million in value. Given the recent increase in league-wide revenue from television contracts and the CBA changes that limit spending in other areas, the inflation rate over that span may significantly exceed five percent, but even if we peg the average value of a free-agent win over the next seven seasons at $7 million, the total value climbs to only $107 million or so.

PECOTA bases part of its projection on how comparable players have performed in the past. While the pool of players compared to Hamilton includes some encouraging names, two of his top comps—Ken Griffey Jr. and Andruw Jones—lived the sort of nightmare scenarios that can’t be far from the minds of Hamilton’s suitors. Both players were superstars through age 30, but a combination of injuries, poor conditioning, and eroding skills made them only marginally productive after they’d passed that point. Griffey played through age 40 but accumulated only 8.2 WARP of his 79.2 career total after age 31, while Jones has amassed just 2.5 WARP in his age-32-35 seasons. Hamilton isn’t doomed to suffer a similar fate, but those examples remind us of how quickly a productive player can become an albatross.

Earlier this week, Buster Olney wrote that the market for Hamilton has been slow to develop, noting that teams appear to be wary of extending an offer longer than four years. A four-year contract would take Hamilton through 2016 and, according to our conservative model, be worth just over $64 million. Raise the four-year average value of a win to $7 million, and the most reasonable sum rises to $84 million, or $21 annually through age 35—coincidentally or not, the same age at which PECOTA expects Hamilton to be an above-average player for the final time. A team on the October bubble might be willing to pay a premium for his short-term production, but for most clubs, that looks like a prudent place to draw the line.

Colin Wyers provided research assistance for this story.

A version of this story originally appeared on ESPN Insider Insider.

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nerck93
11/29
Hey where can you find comps for PECOTA ?
eliyahu
11/29
Very curious as to what Hamilton's projections would look like if he'd started his career at an earlier age. For example, if he'd have out up the same exact numbers but started his learning curve at age 21-22 -- when his intrinsic talent level says he should have -- what would his projected WARP look like? I recognize the flaws in this approach, but I do think its worth looking at.
chabels
11/29
The challenge here is that the projections highly value age. So had Hamilton's first full season line of .304/.371/.530 come when he was 22, PECOTA would have looked at that and seen one of the best all-time seasons for a 22-yo. His comps would have been Griffey and ARod and the like. When those numbers come at age 27, there is a far larger pool of players who have put up those figures at that age.

After writing all this, I realized that there's probably a guy you could look at and see something close to what you're looking for:

Mike Trout.
eliyahu
11/30
I understand that challenge, but I think tht Hamilton's case is so unique that it may warrant looking at it as such for the following reasons:

1 -- In terms of real learning curve, his actual MLB experience is where most MLBers younger than him would be. For example, the 26-year-old Billy Butler has more major league ABs than Hamilton. I think everyone agrees that Buter is an excellent hitter who will get better, yet he has more MLB expererience than Hamilton.

2 --Hamilton is a once-in-a-generation talent that could have made the majors at a very young age. I know it's controversial to say that he's the most talented player ever....but I think he's pretty close. As such, typical aging curves may be less relevant for him.

For example, many players learn to take a BB as they get older -- particularly supremely talented hitters (as oposed to supremely disciplined). Ken Griffey Jr., for example, was talented enough at a young age to get real MVP votes. But he got better at taking walks after he had a couple oof thousand MLB ABs under his belt. Hamilton may be at a comparable point on the learning curve.
chabels
11/30
You've confused controversial with ridiculous.

Hamilton is a hell of a talent, and there is an element of "what might have been" with him, but he's nowhere close to the most talented player ever, or even the most talented player alive at any point during his life.

While Hamilton may be at the front end of the learning curve (or entering his prime) he's on the downslope of his physical abilities, which will only degrade going forward. So while he might be better at taking a walk, pitchers have less time to fear him as well.

You're also acting as though his makeup issues are independent of his baseball skill. They are not, makeup is a central component, and Hamilton's off-the-charts terrible makeup crippled his early career. Moreover, even as he's shed that problem, he has a problem staying on the field, averaging only 129 games/season over the last five.

Two great seasons and two very good does not a GOAT make.
Lespaul1
12/02
He didn't say "GOAT" - he talked only about talent. And in terms of pure baseball tools many scouts and front office people have said he is among the most talented prospects they ever saw. Fast. Rocket arm. Off the charts raw power. Played center field to boot.

The fact he is so productive despite almost completely ruining his career would seem to speak to his immense talent, no?
eliyahu
12/02
This conversation may get buried, but I definitely stand by my statement. Amazing that in all the Hamilton hoopla, few people really grasp what it is that Hamilton has achieved. Ignoring completely the substance abuse issues, this is a guy who jumped from A ball to the major leagues with a three year gap (!) in the middle. Most players say they lose their timing if they don't picka bat up for a week; he went years without a bat in his hand and stepped into the majors and became an amazing, MVP-worthy player.

The lazy comp here would be Ted Williams, but Williams had established himself as the best hitter in the world before he left baseball for the war. If you think about what Hamilton has accomplished and watch him play, it's actually well within the realm of reason that he's the most talented player ever.