The Los Angeles Angels went into the offseason with the plan of finding a new every day third baseman. They no longer felt comfortable defaulting the role to Anthony Rendon despite his salary being north of $38 million per year. His availability has been the critical issue — 58 or fewer games played in five straight seasons — but he also has not played particularly well when healthy too.
Take away the shortened 2020 season and Rendon has just 1.6 bWAR in four seasons, has not had an OPS above .712 or an OPS+ above 100 and has 13 total home runs. He has dealt with injuries, suspensions, public comments about his lack of commitment to the sport and everything in between.
So with all of that under consideration, the Angels agreed to terms with players like Yoan Moncada, Scott Kingery, J.D. Davis and Kevin Newman all in the hopes that someone could serve as Rendon’s replacement and he would move to the bench. Moncada is currently the likely leader.
Now, Rendon will not even be available to play a reduced role in 2025. First reported by Sam Blum of The Athletic, Rendon is expected to miss a long stretch due to hip surgery:
News: Anthony Rendon is having hip surgery, and is expected to miss a long amount of time.
He had a setback in his rehab the last few weeks.
Another injury for Rendon, and it now becomes unclear if and when he’ll play for the Angels again.
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) February 12, 2025
Made even worse, Rendon did not return calls made to him by Angels manager Ron Washington in light of the news, via Blum of The Athletic:
When told the news that Anthony Rendon would need hip surgery — sidelining him for all of 2025 — Ron Washington gave his beleaguered third baseman a phone call. It wasn’t returned.
“Anthony’s dealing with some things,” the manager said of the 34-year-old, who is still set to make more than $38 million from the Angels this year. “And I know at some point he’ll get back to me.”
The seven-year contract the Angels signed him to in the 2019-20 winter has gone about as poorly as anyone could have possibly imagined. General manager Perry Minasian openly admitted as such when he said in September of 2024 that Rendon has been neither available nor productive, and that he would not be guaranteed a starting role in 2025.
Rendon’s lack of a starting role has now turned into a lack of an entire season. And potentially, the end of a shockingly bitter L.A. tenure.
Washington still a believer in Anthony Rendon
Even after the news that Rendon would miss most, if not all, of the 2025 season along with the not returned phone calls, Washington remained optimistic about Rendon. He said that he is still a believer in the third baseman, but that the Angels are going to move forward, because that’s all they can do.
