Anthony Rendon has a new reason to not have to play baseball for the Angels

Anthony Rendon has to be getting tied of the narrative that he, in fact, wants nothing to do with playing baseball games for the Los Angeles Angels. Rendon has missed a significant number of games due to injury, so by no means is that reputation totally earned, though past comments about his priorities in life haven't helped his cause.

"It's never been a top priority for me," Rendon said in February, according to The Athletic. "This is a job. I do this to make a living. My faith, my family come first before this job. So if those things come before it, I'm leaving."

That is, by all means, a reasonable take, and how most of us view our professional lives. Work is important, sure, but it's not everything. Family, and in Rendon's case faith, comes before everything. However, Angels fans didn't take kindly to Rendon's comment given his lofty salary and the hope that he'd be the robin to Mike Trout's batman. Anaheim has wasted the majority of Trout's career, and lost Shohei Ohtani to the rival Dodgers this past winter.

Another Anthony Rendon injury forces Angels star out of action

Rendon finished tenth in AL MVP voting in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. That was his first year with the Angels, and he played in 52 games. Since then, he has yet to surpass 60 games played in a single season, and he's flirting with that number in 2024. In 41 games played this season, Rendon has slashed .235/.312/.281, which is good for a .593 OPS. That's less than ideal.

Seemingly every time Rendon is activated from the IL, he gets hurt again. That happened again late last week, as he injured his elbow against the Atlanta Braves. Rendon was removed from that game in the fourth inning and diagnosed with a bruised right elbow. He's thus far avoided another stint on the injured list, but hasn't returned to the lineup since.

FanSided's Eric Cole put Rendon's accomplishments this season in perspective, and it's not pretty:

"Since July 8, he has played in 20 games (again, he hurt himself again during this stretch) and he has slashed .213/.294/.267 with just four extra base hits to his name. His strikeout and walk rates have been reasonable, but everything else has been terrible, and his fWAR over this period of time is -0.2. Assuming the Angels had an at least league-average player to sub in for him, they would have been in a more favorable place," Cole wrote for Halo Hangout.

That is a huge yikes, especially for a player the Angels paid $275 million in 2019. Hopefully for his sake, Rendon can stay healthy and contribute down the stretch. If not, 2024 will go down as just another disappointment in a long line of them since he signed with LA.