{"id":379002,"date":"2025-12-31T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T08:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379002\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T08:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T08:18:09","slug":"angels-anthony-rendon-restructure-contract-rendon-will-not-return-to-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379002\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels, Anthony Rendon Restructure Contract; Rendon Will Not Return To Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Angels and Anthony Rendon<\/a> have agreed to a restructured version of his contract that will defer the $38MM he is still owed for the next three to five seasons, reports Sam Blum of The Athletic<\/a>. Rendon will not return to the team. His tenure with the Angels is over.<\/p>\n

Rendon is not officially \u201cretiring,\u201d Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register adds<\/a>. He\u2019ll still count against the team\u2019s roster for the time being, although with the two sides agreeing to part ways, it stands to reason that the Angels could release him at any point. He\u2019ll be paid regardless.<\/p>\n

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ESPN\u2019s Alden Gonzalez reported in late November<\/a> that the two parties were working on a buyout of sorts regarding the final year and $38MM on the seven-year, $245MM contract Rendon signed following his monster 2019 season. It proved to be a catastrophic misstep for the Halos \u2014 one of the least-productive major signings in the sport\u2019s history. Rendon played in only 257 games for Anaheim, slashing just .242\/.348\/.369 with 22 home runs in 1095 plate appearances. Of a possible 1032 games he could have played with the Angels, Rendon will wind up appearing in just under one-quarter of them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to forget, but Rendon\u2019s Angels tenure started out quite well. He played in 52 of 60 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and slashed a robust .286\/.418\/.497 with nine homers, 11 doubles, a triple and more walks (16.4%) than strikeouts (13.4%). It was precisely the type of star-level output for which the Angels hoped when signing the 2019 postseason standout after a sensational run in Washington; from 2017-19, Rendon had slashed .310\/.397\/.556 with the Nationals.<\/p>\n

Everything fell apart after that first season in Anaheim. Rendon\u2019s 2021 season was cut short by hip surgery. His 2022 season ended early due to wrist surgery. He missed all of the 2025 season following a second hip surgery. Even in the 2023-24 seasons, when he avoided undergoing any kind of surgical procedure, Rendon was limited to just 90 games due to the combination of a fractured tibia (suffered when fouling a ball into his leg), a torn hamstring and an oblique strain.<\/p>\n

As one would expect, as those injuries piled up, Rendon\u2019s production wilted. Following his terrific 2020 campaign, he played in just 202 games with the Angels and hit .231\/.329\/.336 with poor defense. He was effectively a replacement-level player \u2014 and a frequently injured one at that. Rendon also sparked controversy off the field as well in 2023, when he was captured on video grabbing an A\u2019s fan by the shirt after he\u2019d been cussed at while leaving the field. Rendon swore at the fan and took a swipe at him after releasing his shirt. He was suspended for four games<\/a> and fined by the league.<\/p>\n

The Angels weren\u2019t counting on any contributions from Rendon in 2026 anyhow, but the restructure and deferral of his weighty $38MM salary gives the team some extra spending power this winter. Details surrounding the nature of the deferrals and how much \u2014 if anything \u2014 they\u2019ll pay Rendon in 2026 are unclear. Blum, however, suggests that the Angels could use the newfound financial freedom to pursue a higher-profile free agent this winter. That doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be at third base, although in Alex Bregman<\/a> and NPB star Kazuma Okamoto<\/a>, there are a pair of notable options at the position.<\/p>\n

Many of the top names on the free agent market remain unsigned to this point. In addition to Bregman and Okamoto, none of Kyle Tucker<\/a>, Bo Bichette<\/a>, Cody Bellinger<\/a>, Framber Valdez<\/a>, Ranger Suarez<\/a> or Tatsuya Imai<\/a> have signed yet. Imai\u2019s 45-day posting window closes on Jan. 2. Okamoto\u2019s posting window closes two days later.<\/p>\n

Prior to the Rendon buyout\/restructure, RosterResource projected<\/a> the Angels\u2019 payroll at about $172MM, which is roughly $34MM shy of their 2025 level. Depending on how the new arrangement has been structured, the Angels could be anywhere from $40-70MM shy of last year\u2019s season-ending mark, which would give general manager Perry Minasian and his staff plenty of room to further augment the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Angels and Anthony Rendon have agreed to a restructured version of his contract that will defer the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[95200,49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-379002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-anthony-rendon","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}