Angels' embarrassment with Anthony Rendon's contract goes deeper than anyone realizes

From the moment the Los Angeles Angels signed Anthony Rendon to a massive deal worth $245 million over seven years back in 2019, it looked like an expensive gamble. Rendon was extremely good during his time with the Nationals, but giving Rendon that high an AAV for that long seemed to be far above what other teams were offering and these are exactly these sorts of deals that do not end well. For proof, one need only look at the Angels' deal with Albert Pujols which aged like luke warm seafood.

However, few genuinely thought that Rendon's deal would be 'one of the worst contracts in MLB history' bad like it is looking like it will be. Since the beginning of the 2020 season (his first in LA), Rendon has averaged a .242/.348/.369 line and has accumulated just 3.7 rWAR total. The biggest issue, other than his ability to impact the ball at all anymore, has been injuries as Rendon has averaged just 51 games a season over that same five season span.

That is bad enough on the surface to qualify Rendon's deal as one of the worst contracts handed out in MLB history. However, a deeper look at how bad he has been and how it has impacted and continuing to impact the Angels makes it somehow look even worse.

There is no recovering what the Angels have lost with their Anthony Rendon gambit

Over the last couple of years, the Angels' public expectations of Rendon have gone further and further down. We have gone from 'he will be an important part of this lineup once he returns' to 'we don't even know if he can still play' pretty quickly and it is easy to understand why. After yet another lost season due to injury in 2024 (this time, it was a hamstring), Rendon is officially on borrowed time with LA and MLB as a whole.

Since the start of his deal, Rendon has made a total of 1.081 plate appearances at third base as also the highest paid third baseman in the league. That has meant that 28 other players have played third for the Angels for a combined 1,883 plate appearances. To put that in more concrete terms, of the five seasons that Rendon has been under contract, other players have combined to cover three seasons of the playing time that would normally be allotted to him.

Things look even worse when you consider that Rendon's replacements have not done all that well. Guys like Luis Rengifo, Gio Urshela, and Matt Duffy were somewhat serviceable in limited playing time, but it isn't a reach to understand why LA has cycled through so many third basemen while Rendon's body basically gave up. No one has been able to step up to fill the void and now the Angels seem like they are even entertaining starting the ghost of Yoan Moncada over Rendon at third heading into this coming season.

A quick look at the math shows that Rendon has, so far, made over $152 million with the Angels since 2020. That is over $141,000 per plate appearance and as we have seen, it isn't like what Rendon has done at the plate has been worth anywhere close to that or even half of that. The worst part is that the Angels still have to pay Rendon over $77 million combined the next two years before they can be rid of him. If history is any indication, it is likely most of the money owed to Rendon this year will be to pay him to ride the bench or trainer's table yet again.

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