There have been many unsavory contracts given to players during the Arte Moreno era with the Los Angeles Angels. But the contract doled out to third baseman Anthony Rendon is shaping up to be potentially the worst of his tenure.
On Dec. 13, 2019, the Angels agreed to terms on a seven-year, $245 million contract to steal Rendon away from the world champion Washington Nationals. At the time, the move was considered a big contract, but potentially worthwhile for an All-Star caliber player coming off of his best season to pair next to Mike Trout.
In the years since, the contract has become easily the worst in baseball. He has completed five of the seven years of his deal, posting a league-average .717 OPS while playing only 257 of a possible 708 (36.3%) regular season games. And now, the Angels still owe the oft-injured and barely playable Rendon $77.1 million over the next two seasons.
Reportedly, though, the Angels are finally going to try a new path with Rendon. As it appears they are going to look for a replacement in free agency that would relegate Rendon to the bench, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
Rendon has been injury-prone over the last four seasons, playing a combined 205 games out of 648, and he simply wasn’t productive in 2024, hitting zero homers in 57 games while being placed on the injured list three times. He’s still due $38.5 million in ’25 and ’26, so he’s not going anywhere this offseason, but the Angels are likely to add an everyday third baseman or possibly move Rengifo there, as it’s proven difficult to count on Rendon to stay healthy at this point. But even Rengifo has injury concerns, so the Halos will need to add to their infield.
Bollinger’s report does not say that the Angels are solidified on any one plan, other than that Rendon is not going to be the every day third baseman next season. And perhaps that could be the best thing for him and for the organization.
Perhaps intentionally playing Rendon every few days will actually allow him to be more productive when he does play and could preserve him through a whole season. What the Angels cannot do, though, is hope that he can play 100 games at a league-average slash line without any sort of backup plan.
Arte Moreno excited about Angels young core
Moreno used Shohei Ohtani’s departure to the L.A. Dodgers as a chance to reset the franchise in 2024. He slashed payroll and gave orders to focus largely on the development of a brewing young core. And while the Angels lost more games in a single season than they ever have, Moreno almost views the year as a success because of that young core.
Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe, Nolan Schanuel, Jose Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz and Ben Joyce all looked great in their first full-length MLB campaign, and are set to lead the next era of Angels baseball. Moreno is proud of that and is excited to finally have a young core to build around.
