"He is a pro's pro," Francona said. "He is such a good kid. We didn't feel it was right to ride the busses and backing guys up, if he wasn't going to be on the team. That's why we did it now. We will try to help him land somewhere."
The Reds' second round pick in the 2009 draftt was trying to catch on with his fifth team since leaving the Reds after the 2018 season. The 30-year old had 10 at bats in the Indians Cactus League games with one hit, a triple.
Since leaving the Reds, Hamilton has been with Kansas City, Atlanta, the New York Mets and San Francisco. He has appeared in a total of 150 games the past two seasons.
Hamilton stole a record 155 bases between high A and Double A in 2012 while in the Reds' organization. He appeared in 13 games in 2013 for the Reds and stole 13 bases. That season, he showed promise by getting on base at a .429 clip, hitting .368.
The Reds moved him out of his natural shortstop position and made him a good defensive center fielder. They tried to turn him into a switch hitter in their hope to make him an offensive weapon out of the leadoff position in the batting order.
The experiment never reached its promise.
Hamilton has only reached base at a below MLB average of .296 while hitting .240. He was able to steal 305 bases in eight years with a career-high of 59 in 2017. He was caught stealing 71 times.
The speedster finished second to current Red Dee Strange-Gordon twice for most stolen bases. Both times in 2015 and 2017, Hamilton had season ending injuries while being in the lead for stolen bases.
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