In the past two years, Hamilton has delighted fans on Broadway and Disney Plus. Let’s hope that the Hamilton that the twins just acquired is as successful as the idea of the future cousin of the twins, José Miranda. In this case, I mean Ian Hamilton, a slider-dependent (stop me if you’ve heard this before) reliever.
Hamilton was declared exempt from the Phillies, but he actually took all of his MLB experience with the White Sox. Yes, that means we caught two of your ex-replacements in the past 72 hours. Let’s hope these guys are ready for a revenge tour. Hamilton defended the dread hosiery in 2018 and 2020. He ended both campaigns with an ERA 4.50 and, generally, peripheral numbers for pedestrians. The notable thing about Hamilton, however, is his mix of pitch.
In Fangraphs, he throws a fastball about 70% of the time and a slider 25%, with the rest of his arsenal being a rarely used exchange. The fastball reaches a speed of about 96 mph, while the slider reaches about 87 mph. He fits exactly the profile of a guy like Matt Wisler, a type of pitcher that the twins and pitching coach Wes Johnson helped to succeed and unlock his next level. Hamilton also has secondary league options, so he can log a few miles up and down I-94 this summer.
Welcome to the twin cities, Ian, whatever city you’re playing in.