Josh Hamilton won't play in 2016, will collect $28 million

The Rangers outfielder will have another surgery on his troublesome left knee next month, ending a season that never started.

Josh Hamilton will get paid more than any position player in the majors this year, without playing a single inning.

Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told reporters Monday that Hamilton will undergo surgery on his left knee June 8, ending a season that never got started.

Hamilton acknowledged during the first week of spring training that he was still feeling pain in the knee he had surgically repaired last year. The team said then, in late February, that Hamilton would have a stem cell injection in an attempt to improve healing in the knee and was targeting a late April return. He did play in one rehab game for Double-A Frisco on April 30, getting two at-bats, but his knee wasn't healthy enough to continue.

The former American League MVP is set to make $28.4 million this season, with the Los Angeles Angels picking up all but $2 million of that tab as a condition of the trade that sent Hamilton back to Texas last spring. He has an opt-out in his deal after this season but has no reason to exercise it, as he is guaranteed the same salary in 2017 as his contract comes to an end.

Hamilton, who turned 35 on Saturday, has played in only 139 games since the start of the 2014 season. Even when he has been healthy enough to take the field, his production the last three years has been a shadow of the MVP form he displayed in his first stint with the Rangers.

After posting a .913 OPS from 2007-12, he has a .740 OPS since signing his monster deal with the Angels heading into the 2013 season.