The Los Angeles Angels have not made it to the postseason since 2014, although it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. They have spent lavishly on the free-agent market, bringing in someone like Anthony Rendon fresh off a World Series title on a seven-year, $245 million contract, but their allocation of resources, to put it lightly, hasn’t been the smartest — especially when the team had to buy Rendon out just to end his much-maligned tenure with the team.
Rendon, in particular, hasn’t been nearly as productive as the Angels had hoped when they brought him in. Injury problems are mostly to blame; even though he already went through a plethora of injury problems in the past, the Angels could not have foreseen that he would be playing in a grand total of 257 games in six seasons with the team — including an entire season’s worth of absence in 2025 after he underwent hip surgery back in February.
Rendon has easily become one of the Angels’ scapegoats for their poor past few seasons, although it’s not exactly his fault that he hasn’t been healthy. Nonetheless, former LA slugger Mark Trumbo feels as though Rendon could have done a better job in facing the media.
“I don’t want to be too hard on him, but I think it was also tough because he was so averse to communicating with the media,” Trumbo said on Foul Territory TV. “I think he fell short in that role. As a player, it’s part of the deal. … Sometimes you got to be accountable, you gotta give an explanation even when it’s not a topic you love.”
“I don’t want to be too hard on him, but I think it was also tough because he was so averse to communicating with the media.”@HaloTerritory‘s Mark Trumbo says Anthony Rendon could’ve done a better job of being more accountable in front of the cameras. pic.twitter.com/R1R86wR7wX
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 6, 2026
Anthony Rendon’s Angels tenure is ends on a whimper
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Rendon’s seven-year contract with the Angels has come to an end, and both parties would say that this is a long time coming.
The 35-year-old infielder put up an OPS of .717 in 257 games with the franchise. That low number of games played has to be the stinger for the Angels; for reference, he played in 272 regular-season games in his two final seasons with the Washington Nationals.