Anthony Rendon often found himself in pain while playing 257 games in six years in Anaheim for the Los Angeles Angels. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
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According to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, third baseman Anthony Rendon and the Los Angeles Angels are in discussions to buyout the final year of the seven-year, $245 million contract the player signed in December, 2019. He is owed approximately $38 million for 2026.
Rendon spent the first seven years of his career with the Washington Nationals. In his final two seasons there, he led the league with 44 doubles each year. And in 2019, he led the league with 126 RBI. While playing in the National League East, he was an All-Star, won two Silver Slugger Awards, and was in the top-15 of MVP voting four times. In his final year in Washington – 2019 – he helped lead the Nationals to a World Series title over the Houston Astros.
Two months after that season ended, the third baseman signed the above-referenced contract with the Angels. The first year of that deal was the Covid-shortened 2020 season, and Rendon played in 52 of the 60 games, slashed .286/.418/.497, for a 150 OPS+. That was good enough to be 10th in MVP voting. Little did anyone know that 2020 – with a pandemic and playing in front of cardboard cut-outs – would be the highpoint of Rendon’s career in Los Angeles.
Rendon hit a total of 22 home runs with 125 RBI, and just a .717 OPS over 257 games in the first six years on the West Coast. He never played in more than 58 game in any season.
Injuries have been the culprit. Since joining the Angels, Rendon has been on the injured list with: a left groin strain, a left knee contusion, a left hamstring strain, a right hip impingement, right wrist inflammation, right wrist surgery, another left groin strain, a left wrist contusion, a left shin contusion, a left hip impingement, a left hamstring strain, low back inflammation, and a left oblique strain. He didn’t play at all in 2025, as he had and recovered from hip surgery.
To put Rendon’s production with Los Angeles into context, take a look at his comparison:
To add insult to his injuries was Rendon’s attitude about the sport that has made him rich. According to Jason Butt of The Washington Post, in 2014 Rendon said he does not watch baseball because it is “too long and boring.”
At the beginning of the 2023 season, he got into a scuffle with a (then) Oakland Athletics fan, when he called the fan a “mother&*$#r” and took a swing at him. That resulted in a four-game suspension.
Before the 2024 season, Sam Blum of The Athletic reported that Rendon said that baseball has “never been a top priority for me…this is a job. I do this to make a living. My faith, my family, come first before this job.” Whether or not you agree with the sentiment, it is a bad look for a player with a $245 million contract who had, at that point, had only played only 200 games over five seasons.
If, as is suspected, Rendon retires and agrees to defer some of the $38 million still owed to him, the Angels will have some additional payroll flexibility as the Hot Stove season warms up. Rendon being removed from the roster will end his tenure in Southern California with what will go down as an all-time contract bust. Coincidentally (and ironically), within just one week’s time, Rendon and former teammate Stephen Strasburg signed the exact same contract. Strasburg threw only 528 pitches over 31 1/3 innings in the majors after signing that deal and before retiring and settling out the contract.
When looking at some of the worst MLB contracts ever, Rendon’s deal will go right up with there with Mo Vaughn’s six-year, $80 million contract that netted a total of 300 games; Albert Pujols’ 10-year, $240 million version in 2012, which saw the first baseman become a below-average hitter after just a few productive seasons; and Josh Hamilton’s 2013 five-year, $125 million contract that ended after just 240 games played and 31 homers hit. What do all of the above contracts have in common? They were all signed by Arte Moreno and the Los Angeles Angels. And this doesn’t even include the Angels, in 2011, taking on the remaining four years and $86 million owed to Vernon Wells (of which they paid $72.1 million before trading him to the Yankees two years later), which got them a total of -0.1 bWAR.
Maybe if and when Rendon’s deal is off the books, the club can turn over a new leaf and try to find a way to get some better contract luck.