{"id":72023,"date":"2025-11-27T10:14:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T10:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/72023\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T10:14:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T10:14:27","slug":"angels-anthony-rendon-contract-might-be-worst-in-mlb-history-as-retirement-looms-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/72023\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels’ Anthony Rendon contract might be worst in MLB history as retirement looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angels’ Anthony Rendon contract might be worst in MLB history as retirement looms<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Angels<\/a> of Anaheim have done many things wrong in recent years.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

But on paper, there was nothing to suggest that Anthony Rendon signing a big free agent contract before the 2020 season would be one of them.<\/p>\n

Rendon was coming off a 7.3 Wins Above Replacement season with the Washington Nationals<\/a> in 2019, his best ever. He had hit a career-high 44 doubles, 34 homers and driven in 126 runs.<\/p>\n

And since, Rendon’s contract with the Angels has gone down as one of the worst in MLB history.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0LeBron passes Michael in a stat that means nothing in the GOAT debate<\/a><\/p>\n

He signed for seven years and $245 million.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reported<\/a> that the Angels and Rendon may buy out the final year of his contract. He’s owed $38 million in 2026.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Gonzalez added that Rendon is expected to retire.<\/p>\n

He actually was good in his first season with the Angels, the COVID-shortened 2020. In 52 games, Rendon hit .286 with a .915 OPS.<\/p>\n

His OPS declined four years in a row after that, though, and injury troubles reduced Rendon’s impact at third base, where he used to be a great fielder.<\/p>\n

Rendon didn’t play at all in 2025 as he recovered from hip surgery.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0LeBron passes Michael in a stat that means nothing in the GOAT debate<\/a><\/p>\n

In total, he accumulated 3.9 WAR with the Angels, with 2.2 of that coming in 2020. That works out to about $62.8 million per win.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Angels likely weren’t expecting much of a contribution from Rendon in 2026, so from that perspective, a buyout is probably no problem.<\/p>\n

And it’s a sad ending for Rendon, who was once such a gifted ballplayer.<\/p>\n

But it was the kind of conclusion that was coming for a while. Rendon simply wasn’t the player he once was.<\/p>\n

More news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angels’ Anthony Rendon contract might be worst in MLB history as retirement looms originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[42256,163,165,164,1426,33144,19316],"class_list":["post-72023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-alden-gonzalez","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-angels","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}