Los Angeles Angels fans' long national nightmare is finally over — well, at least one of them anyway. After years spent cashing checks while showing open contempt for the concept of playing baseball, the Anthony Rendon era appears to finally be coming to an end in Anaheim, as ESPN's Alden Gonzalez reports that the team is in talks with its highly compensated third baseman about buying out the final year of the seven-year, $245 million deal he signed in the winter of 2019-20.
And what a deal it's been, if you're Rendon or his agent. After an excellent 52 games during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, Rendon pretty much packed it in: He's played just 205 games in the five years since due to a litany of injuries, slashing just .231/.329/.336 over that span. It's been the worst contract in the sport for going on half a decade and now, and the end is finally in sight.
But while Angels fans have reason for hope, some other fan bases aren't quite so lucky. Sure, no one around the league is quite as overpaid as Rendon has been, but there are still plenty of big names whose teams would love to give them the Rendon treatment if they had the chance.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
3B Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals
Barring a minor miracle, the Cardinals are weeks away from functionally paying some other team to take Arenado off their hands. Things have gotten that bad for the eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glover: His once-historic defense at third base is now simply pretty good, a problem magnified by the fact that his offense has collapsed as his athleticism has waned.
So now St. Louis is left with a 1-2 WAR player, one with a tax number north of $25 million for the next two years. Arenado is too big a name to bench, but he's also not doing a rebuilding Cardinals team any favors as he soaks up 500-600 middling at-bats a year. And given his decline at the plate, it's tough to find a contender who'd be willing to take him on.
OF Nick Castellanos, Philadelphia Phillies
It was obvious from a mile away that Castellanos wouldn't be the sort of player who aged well, a free swinger at the plate who was rough in the outfield even in his younger years. Once the athleticism began to slip, and took his freakish bat control with it, the floor figured to be ugly.
That didn't keep the Phillies from handing him a five-year, $100 million deal ahead of the 2022 season, though, and sure enough the worst has come to pass: Castellanos was quite possibly the worst regular in the sport this year, posting a .294 OBP and an 88 OPS+ while being arguably the worst defensive right fielder in baseball. The good news is that he only has one more year left on that contract; the bad news is that Philly could really use that $20 million right now, so much so that they'll probably wind up eating money just to dump him on someone else.
1B/OF Kris Bryant, Colorado Rockies
The Bryant saga is a tragic one, as chronic back pain has limited him to just 170 games over four years in Colorado. Even when he's been in the lineup of late, he's been a shell of his former MVP self, slashing .222/.307/.335 over the last three years. He has three more seasons left on his seven-year, $182 million contract, and at this point it's fair to wonder whether he'll be able to see the field for any of it.
Bryant's run with the Cubs remains the stuff of legend, a No. 2 overall pick who won Rookie of the Year honors in year one and then an MVP and a World Series ring in year two. He was a sensational two-way player and a joy to watch, and while that version of him certainly isn't coming back, we at least hope to see some flashes of the old swing before he ends his career for good.
SS Xander Bogaerts, San Diego Padres
Bogaerts certainly isn't a bad player. He remains a sturdy defender up the middle, and he was a roughly league-average hitter last year. You could do a lot worse than plugging him in at shortstop and sticking him at the bottom of your lineup.
Of course, it would be hard to do much worse than paying him over $25 million a year for eight more years. Yet that's the reality the Padres are staring down, as there's an eternity left on the 11-year, $280 million contract AJ Preller handed out to lure Bogaerts away from Boston in the winter of 2022-23. Bogaerts is already 33, meaning that San Diego is on the hook for him until he's in his early 40s. Given the decline in his pop at the plate over the last couple of years, it's scary to think about how bad this deal will be once his defense goes sooner rather than later.
OF/DH Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
Look, it brings me no pleasure to include Trout on this list. He's an easy first-ballot Hall of Famer who was among the greatest players in MLB history during his jaw-dropping prime. No one's trying to take any of that away, and it's hard to criticize the Angels for handing him a 12-year, $426.5 million contract with a full no-trade clause ahead of the 2019 season. Trout was entering his age-27 campaign at the time, one that would earn him a third AL MVP Award and an eighth straight All-Star appearance.
But that also doesn't change the reality of the current situation. Trout's inability to stay healthy — he's played just 449 games since 2020 — has forced him to split time between the outfield and DH duties. Even more concerning, his bat is in steep decline: He posted a dismal 32% K rate in 2025, by far his career worst, while posting a .797 OPS. He's a good hitter, but he's no longer a great one, and one that will play the field less and less in the coming years.
If Trout were made a free agent tomorrow, he'd get nowhere near his current $35.5 million AAV. If he waived his no-trade clause tomorrow, the Angels would be hard-pressed to get anything of value for him on his bloated contract. It feels like a matter of time before we're having Rendon discussions about Trout, which is a bleak realization.