Angels left fielder Josh Hamilton is meeting with Major League Baseball officials Wednesday about a disciplinary issue, and the team is bracing for possible penalties.
General Manager Jerry Dipoto confirmed that Hamilton was in New York, but he declined to say what prompted league officials to summon the outfielder.
“I can say that Josh is going to meet with league officials in New York,” Dipoto said. “At this point I have no other information to offer.” The Los Angeles Times learned the meeting involved a disciplinary issue through a person with knowledge of the situation.
 
Josh Hamilton meeting with MLB over 'disciplinary issue'
 
Hamilton has an injured shoulder, and he doesn’t have a locker in the Angels’ spring training clubhouse at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
Hamilton’s agent, Michael Moye, did not return several messages, and MLB spokesman Pat Courtney declined to comment.
The Angels are allowing Hamilton to remain in Houston — at a friend’s ranch — to rehabilitate from Feb. 4 surgery on his right shoulder, an odd arrangement considering most players remain with their teams while recovering from injuries during spring training or the regular season.
Hamilton, projected to be the team’s cleanup or No. 5 hitter, is expected to be sidelined until at least May because of the injury. If he is suspended he could be out until late June or July.
Hamilton has a troubled past that includes a well-chronicled four-year addiction to cocaine and alcohol. He was suspended from baseball from 2003 to 2005, but returned to develop into a feared slugger, hitting .305 and averaging 28 homers and 101 runs batted in a season for Texas from 2008 to 2012 and leading the Rangers to the World Series in 2010 and 2011. He won American League most valuable player honors in 2010.
He signed a five-year, $125-million deal with the Angels before the 2013 season but has been a bust, hitting .255 with 31 homers, 123 RBIs and 266 strikeouts in two seasons marked by injury and underachievement.
Hamilton missed most of last September because of a shoulder injury and went hitless in 13 at-bats, often looking overmatched, in an AL division series sweep at the hands of the Kansas City Royals.
The Angels were counting on a bounce-back year from Hamilton to help ease the loss of second baseman and September cleanup batter Howie Kendrick, who was traded to the Dodgers in December.
Hamilton, the first pick of the 1999 draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, suffered alcohol relapses in 2009 and 2012, but those transgressions did not count as offenses under the current drug policy. One condition of Hamilton’s reinstatement was that he be tested for drugs three times a week.
 

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