Los Angeles Angels and Anthony Rendon: Contract Termination Negotiations
The Los Angeles Angels and third baseman Anthony Rendon are in talks to terminate the final year of his contract, according to sources close to the team. This agreement, which could resolve the seven-year, $245 million contract, did not meet the expectations for the team.
Rendon, who spent the entire 2025 season recovering from hip surgery, is expected to retire. The 35-year-old player has a pending salary of 38 million dollars for 2026. Although the termination of that remaining money has not yet been finalized, Rendon is expected to defer at least part of that payment, which would give the team greater financial flexibility to address the needs of the offseason.Anthony Rendon estaría cerca de retirarse si llega a un acuerdo con los Angels 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 draft from Rice University, 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.
In that four-year period, Rendon batted .299/.384/.528. 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 major league, as he became the star in a postseason run that ended with the franchise’s first title.
With the attention on him, Rendon’s limited public interest in baseball, often admitting that it is not his main priority, but simply a job, and that he does not care about praise or attention, became an endearing part of his personality. Over the years, it became a referendum on his lack of productivity.
Rendon performed as usual during a 2020 season interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the last time the Angels experienced anything close to Rendon’s prime. In the following four years, he batted .231/.329/.336 and participated in 205 of 648 possible games. Injuries to his left groin, left knee, left thigh, 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 was on July 1, 2023. He never played in more than 58 games in a season.
Rendon’s onerous contract coincided with a similar string of bad luck with Mike Trout’s injuries. 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 Angels manager, the sixth in eight years.
Soon, at least, they will be able to move on to third base.
