It’s been a tough stretch for the Los Angeles Angels. After six seasons and no playoff appearances with generational superstar Shohei Ohtani on their roster, the Angels watched him head across town to join the Los Angeles Dodgers on a record-setting deal. The Dodgers have promptly won the next two World Series.
In an effort to build a strong roster around Ohtani, back in 2019, the Angels signed third baseman Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245 million deal. At the time, the move made some sense. Rendon had just won a championship with the Washington Nationals. He was a solid hitter and defender at a coveted position, coming off an All-Star and All-MLB First Team appearance. The Angels imagined a back-to-back punch in the batting order of Ohtani and Rendon, but that dream never really materialized.
How’d that turn out? Well… as you know, Ohtani soon jumped ship to their cross-town rivals. And… Rendon? Well… he has missed 75% of the games the Angels have played in. And he’s still on the roster, set to be the highest-paid third baseman in the Major Leagues next season.
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The Rendon Deal in Cold, Hard Numbers
When the Angels signed Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245 million contract, they committed to an average annual value of $35 million fully guaranteed. The deal included a full no-trade clause, no opt-outs, and no performance bonuses. It was expected to anchor the franchise through the prime of both Rendon and Ohtani. Instead, it quickly turned into one of the most expensive sunk costs in baseball.
Rendon was productive during the shortened 2020 season, batting well and appearing in 52 of 60 games. That year now feels like an outlier. Beginning in 2021, injuries piled up at a stunning pace. Across the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 seasons, the Angels played 810 games. Rendon appeared in only 205 of them, missing 605 games with a wide range of injuries including groin and hamstring strains, oblique damage, hip impingements, wrist surgery, a fractured tibia, and most recently an entire season lost without a single plate appearance.
During that five-year stretch, the Angels paid Rendon roughly $152 million. For that investment, they got just over two hundred games, a small handful of home runs, and a cumulative OPS of .666. That means the club effectively paid him more than $740,000 for every game he suited up. When calculated by plate appearance or by WAR, the numbers become even more lopsided. Rendon delivered negative or near-zero WAR in multiple seasons, giving the Angels minimal on-field value while consuming a superstar salary slot.
A Massive Gap Between Salary and Production
To put Rendon’s salary in context, the highest-paid third basemen in recent seasons include names like Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado, Rafael Devers, and Alex Bregman. Those players have consistently driven their teams’ offenses, logged full seasons, and competed for postseason berths. Rendon’s compensation is higher than all of them, yet his availability and production lag far behind.
A .666 OPS places him well below the league average, and far from the elite tier the Angels expected when they paid for a player coming off a World Series campaign and a seven-plus WAR season. In 2025 alone, 136 players posted a better OPS. Even comparing Rendon to non-superstar regulars exposes a glaring gap between what he is paid and what he produces.
That gap becomes especially stark when considering that the Angels’ contract was not insured in any meaningful way. Most mega-deals in baseball are uninsured because premiums are exorbitant, but some clubs have historically covered portions of long-term commitments to injury-prone players. The Angels did not, meaning every missed inning has been absorbed directly on the team’s books.
How It Went Wrong
The Rendon signing was intended to push the Angels into contention during Ohtani’s prime. Instead, the team never found its footing. Pitching continued to be a chronic weakness, and the Rendon contract severely hampered the Angels’ ability to add depth or flexibility. The club was locked into a nine-figure deal for a player who was rarely able to take the field.
Rendon’s injuries were legitimate and numerous, but the cumulative effect was devastating. The club spent years waiting for a bounce-back season that never arrived. Even when briefly healthy, Rendon struggled to recapture the elite approach and gap power that defined his Nationals tenure. As the injuries mounted, the disconnect between salary and performance grew more dramatic.
The End of the Road
Rendon is on track to earn $38.6 million in the final year of his contract, which would make him the highest-paid third baseman in Major League Baseball. The Angels will finally be free of the deal after the season concludes. Unless Rendon delivers one of the most improbable late-career turnarounds in recent memory, the contract will be remembered as one of the most costly miscalculations in modern MLB history.
