Los Angeles Angels and Anthony Rendon: Negotiations for a Contract Buyout
The Los Angeles Angels and third baseman Anthony Rendon are in talks to terminate the final year of his contract, a move that could end a seven-year, $245 million deal that did not meet the team’s expectations.
It is expected that Rendon, who recovered from hip surgery throughout the 2025 season, will retire, according to a source close to him.
The 35-year-old player has a salary of 38 million dollars in 2026. Although a possible exit agreement for that remaining money has not yet been finalized, the expectation is that Rendon will defer at least part of that amount, which would give the team greater financial flexibility to address needs in the offseason.Se espera que Anthony Rendon se retire si él y los Angels llegan a un acuerdo para rescindir el último año de su contrato de siete años y 245 millones de dólares.The Angels made Rendon the highest-paid third baseman in baseball in December 2019, after seeing him excel with the Washington Nationals, then World Series champions. If the Angels and Rendon’s agent, Scott Boras, manage to finalize the termination, Rendon will have played in only a quarter of the Angels’ games during the term of that contract, accumulating 3.7 wins above replacement (fWAR) according to FanGraphs.
Selected in the first round of the 2011 Rice University draft, Rendon established himself as one of baseball’s best all-around players with an emerging group in Washington. He was an exceptional hitter and a talented defender, and from 2016 to 2019, only nine position players accumulated more fWAR.
Rendon hit .299/.384/.528 in that four-year period. In his final season with the Nationals, he finished third in the National League MVP voting after posting a 1.010 OPS, the highest of his career, along with 34 home runs and 126 RBIs, leading the league and starring in a postseason run that ended with the franchise’s first title.
As the years went by, his lack of productivity became a topic of debate. Rendon looked a lot like himself during a 2020 season interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the last time the Angels experienced anything close to Rendon’s best. In the following four years, he batted only .231/.329/.336, appearing in 205 of 648 possible games. Injuries to the left groin, left knee, left hamstring, left shin, left oblique, lower back, both wrists, and both hips sent him to the injured list.
The final blow came on February 12, 2025, when the Angels announced at the start of spring training that Rendon would undergo hip surgery and miss the season. Rendon spent the entire season away from the team, mainly rehabilitating near his home in Houston. His last home run with the team occurred on July 1, 2023. He never played in more than 58 games in a season.
The onerous Rendon contract coincided with a series of unfortunate injuries to Mike Trout. The unavailability of these two players, the team’s highest paid, along with the general lack of depth in the squad, only accentuated the Angels’ decline despite the emergence of Shohei Ohtani as a two-way phenomenon.
The Angels haven’t reached the playoffs since 2014 and haven’t won a playoff game since 2009. The 2025 season marked their tenth consecutive season with a sub-.500 record. Kurt Suzuki, Rendon’s teammate on the 2019 Nationals, has been named manager of the Angels, the sixth in eight years.
Soon, at least, they will be able to advance to third base.
