Anthony Rendon's brutal luck struck again at the worst time

The Los Angeles Angels signed Anthony Rendon to a seven-year deal worth $245 million ahead of the 2020 campaign with the idea of him being an integral piece surrounding Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. He was coming off a season in which he was an NL MVP finalist and led the Nationals to a World Series championship, and has simply not been the same guy ever since.

Rendon did perform at a high level in the shortened 2020 season, but that contract has looked like one of the worst ever signed ever since. Rendon appeared in just 148 games from 2021-2023, averaging 49 games per season, and to make matters worse, he had a 94 OPS+ in the few games he did appear in.

The 33-year-old began the 2024 campaign as a villain amongst Angels fans due to everything that has gone on since he signed the contract, and things only started to get worse when he failed to record a hit in each of his first 19 at-bats of the season.

After that rough start, Rendon did finally turn it on and was hitting .357 with an .823 OPS in his next 14 games before disaster struck. Rendon was hurt once again, and it's not a minor injury. His brutal luck struck at the absolute worst time.

Anthony Rendon suffers brutal injury at the absolute worst time

It's crazy to say this since Rendon didn't even hit a home run in that 14-game stretch, but that was genuinely one of his hottest streaks as an Angel since that 2020 campaign. He was getting on base at an elite level and was proving to be a nice spark plug for the Angels.

Rendon led off Los Angeles' game on Sunday, April 20, in Cincinnati with an infield single, but as he was running it out, he suffered a hamstring injury. It turns out, he'll be out for a while.

Just as he was finally getting going for the Angels, he suffered not only an injury, but an injury that will keep him out for a substantial amount of time. This is just the worst possible news for the Angels and for Rendon, who continues to be ravaged by the injury bug. The two-time Silver Slugger winner even expressed his frustration after the injury occurred, which was interesting to see from a guy who had said all of the wrong things when it came to playing baseball in the past.

Even when things finally take a turn in the right direction for Rendon, the momentum is immediately brought to a halt.