Breaking down the five most likely landing spots for Anthony Rendon in free agency

1. Washington Nationals

Rendon and the Nationals were exchanging potential terms for a contract extension all year, so there has already been a lot of preliminary legwork done on keeping him in Washington. That type of continuous dialogue prior to free agency is not typical for a Scott Boras client like Rendon. The third baseman seems to genuinely prefer staying with the Nats.

The Nationals reportedly offered Rendon seven years and over $200 million. He did nothing during the regular season to lower his value and is the best hitter on the market this winter by a wide margin. An annual price tag of $30 million is a fair asking price for Rendon, though he may have to settle for fewer than seven years if he wants to approach Nolan Arenado’s average salary of $32.5 million. Could the Nationals convince him to stay for $170 million over five years with options?

This is a much more difficult winter than last for the Nationals because they have two elite free agents to take care of, though Stephen Strasburg likely won’t require a huge increase in salary to be convinced to stay. It will be more about adding years for the right-hander. The Nationals had the cash available last winter to offer Harper over $30 million per year, so there’s no reason to think they can’t do the same this year for Rendon, who has actually been a better hitter over the last three years.

Washington was able to win the World Series without Harper because their lineup featured two MVP candidates in Rendon and Juan Soto and their rotation had two Cy Young contenders at the top. They’ll have to make sure that doesn’t change for 2020, but Nationals ownership has never been shy about spending their money.