The Contract That Never Was
In December 2019, Anthony Rendon walked into the Los Angeles Angels‘ front office as the game’s hottest free agent. He’d just won a World Series with the Washington Nationals, batting .319 with 34 home runs. The Angels, riding high with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani already in the fold, saw Rendon as the final piece. They handed him a seven-year deal worth $245 million.
By December 2025, that contract was officially over—sort of. Rendon and the Angels agreed to defer the remaining $38 million across three to five seasons, and the third baseman will never play another game in an Angels uniform. It’s not a trade. It’s not a release. It’s what happens when a nine-figure investment returns almost nothing.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Rendon appeared in just 257 of the 1,032 games the Angels could have fielded during his tenure. That’s 25 percent. In those games, he hit .242 with a .348 on-base percentage and .369 slugging percentage. He managed 22 home runs across 1,095 plate appearances. For context: a healthy Anthony Rendon would have been a 30-homer, .300-average threat. This wasn’t that player.
The injuries started immediately. A wrist injury in 2020 cost him most of that season. A hip flexor strain in 2021. Shoulder problems. Hamstring issues. By 2023 and 2024, Rendon was a part-time player fighting just to stay available. The Angels watched helplessly as their third baseman became a liability on the field and a dead weight on the payroll.
The real damage wasn’t just the money—though $245 million is real money. It was the opportunity cost. While Rendon was injured, the Angels could have used that roster spot and that salary on depth, on a healthy arm in the bullpen, on literally anything else. Trout and Ohtani were still there, still elite, still wasting away on a team that couldn’t build around them. By the time Ohtani left and Trout aged into his decline years, the Rendon contract was still hanging over the franchise like a weight.
Scott Boras and the Market
This wasn’t Scott Boras’s fault, exactly. Boras negotiated the deal as any agent would—maximizing his client’s earning potential. The Angels made the offer. They valued Rendon at $245 million over seven years. That was their assessment of the risk and reward. Rendon signed it.
But the deal became a case study in how the free agent market can misprice risk. Rendon was 30 years old when he signed. He had injury concerns that weren’t hidden. The Angels chose to ignore the red flags, betting that a change of scenery and their medical staff could keep him healthy. They lost that bet.
The Deferral Dance
The December 2025 agreement to defer the final $38 million is actually clever accounting for both sides. Rendon gets paid—just not all at once. The Angels get cap relief now, though they’ll feel the sting later. It’s a mutual admission: we both know this didn’t work, so let’s make the exit as clean as possible.
This isn’t redemption for Rendon or vindication for the Angels. It’s just the math of a failed investment finally being acknowledged. The player moves on to find a new team (or retire). The franchise stops bleeding money in real time.
Why It Still Matters
In 2026, the Rendon contract serves as a reminder that even the most prestigious names come with risk. Rendon wasn’t a bust because he was lazy or unmotivated. He was a bust because his body couldn’t hold up. That happens. It’s rare at the superstar level, but it happens.
For teams evaluating free agents, the Rendon case is a master class in due diligence. Medical histories matter. Age matters. The gap between what a player did last season and what he might do next season can be massive. The Angels learned that lesson at $245 million.
For players, it’s a reminder that even the biggest contracts aren’t guarantees. Rendon will collect his deferred money, but he’ll spend the rest of his career defined by what he didn’t accomplish in Los Angeles. That’s the real cost of a deal gone wrong.
The number: Anthony Rendon played 257 of 1,032 possible games on his $245M Angels contract, hitting just .242 with 22 home runs before the team agreed to defer his final $38 million and release him.
