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Josh Hamilton reportedly seeking 7 years, $175 million

Josh Hamilton is hoping to parlay his success over the past few years with the Texas Rangers into a huge contract, injury history be damned.

Ezra Shaw

Free agent outfielder Josh Hamilton reportedly wants a seven-year, $175 million contract, according to John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus.

Hamilton is the second-ranked position player on the market behind fellow outfielder B.J. Upton, says ESPN.com's Keith Law, but he may be hard-pressed to get a deal like that from any team. Age is not in the 31-year-old superstar's favor, nor is his injury history; although he only missed 14 games in 2012, Hamilton sat out a total of 143 games from 2009 through 2011.

Another concerning factor regarding Hamilton is that his strikeout rate jumped to a career-worst 25.5 percent in 2012. It was especially bad in the second half of the season, when he struck out more and walked less than in the first half. In fact, most of Hamilton's post-All-Star break stats were poor in comparison to his first half, which could be an effect of wearing down after playing in a lot more games than in previous campaigns. This was especially the case down the stretch and in the AL Wild Card play-in game, when Hamilton struggled mightily at the plate and in the field.

In six big league seasons, Hamilton has hit .304/.363/.549 with 161 home runs.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.