Anthony Rendon’s second season with the Los Angeles Angels — and first full season — likely could not have gone worse. He played in just nine games before suffering his first injury of the season, a groin strain. Then, seven games later, he went to the IL again after fouling a ball of his knee.
This time, the hope was that he was back in the lineup for good and that the random injuries were behind him. Then, on the Fourth of July, he got hurt again. This time, it was a hamstring strain that sent him to the IL for the third time. He was only supposed to be out a couple weeks, but his injury wasn’t healing. After searching for answers, the injury took a completely different turn away from the hamstring.
The Angels announced on Wednesday that Rendon will miss the rest of the season to undergo surgery on a right hip impingement. This explains why Rendon was taking so long to heal, but even Joe Maddon was confused as to how a hamstring injury became a hip issue, via Dave Sessions of MLB.com:
“I guess because he wasn’t feeling relief, they went a little bit more deeply into it and the conclusion was something with his hip,” manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s something I don’t understand, how it goes from a hammy to a hip, but it did and now we have to treat it.”
Maddon was disappointed on Rendon’s behalf, who essentially lost a year of his prime due to injury.
“This year he was never able to get on track and for whatever reason, I don’t know how much that hamstring-slash-hip had to do with it, but he never seemed to be able to get any traction,” Maddon said. “Because he gets — ‘torrid’ is the right word — he gets so hot, and he just was not able to do that this year.”
“It’s unfortunate. We’ve been missing some very major pieces all year, [Rendon] as much as anybody, obviously,” Maddon said. “I just want him to be well, I want him to get over it and I want him to feel better about himself. I want him to be ready for next season full-fledged.”
Recovery from this type of surgery generally takes 4-6 months, meaning Rendon absolutely should be back at full strength for the start of next season. However, having Rendon for only 58 games this season was a huge disappointment for everyone who was ecstatic to see the Angels offense at full strength.
That will have to wait until next season, when the Angels are hoping they’ll be in legitimate World Series contention.
Mike Trout not out for season
With Rendon officially being ruled out for the season, many turned their attention to Mike Trout, who has been out for two and a half months with a Grade 2 calf strain. Fans have started to wonder if it’s worth it to just shut Trout down for the season, but Maddon was fervently against the idea.
Maddon said he understands the disappointment that the timeline keeps getting pushed back, but he had no reason to believe that Trout would miss the rest of the year.