Anthony Rendon's Contract Reportedly Bought Out by Angels After $245M Deal

Anthony Rendon's tenure with the Los Angeles Angels is officially over after the team bought him out of the final year of his contract, according to The Athletic's Sam Blum.

Blum reported Rendon will receive deferred payments over a span of three to five years.

There have been plenty of bad investments across MLB's modern history, and the Angels have witnessed their fair share of them. The seven-year, $245 million deal for Rendon is pound-for-pound one of the worst in a long time.

The veteran third baseman had a huge year in 2019. He led all of MLB in RBI (126) and had a .319/.412/.598 slash line as the Washington Nationals were crowned World Series champions.

Rendon had been a consistent producer before that as well. His 28.9 WAR from 2014-19 ranked 10th among position players, per FanGraphs.

Somebody was going to give the two-time Silver Slugger a big payday, and the Angels generally received praise for trying to strengthen the supporting cast around Mike Trout.

Nobody could've foreseen how dramatically Rendon's performance would drop off.

During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Los Angeles' statement signing largely lived up to billing. He slugged .497 and had a 150 OPS+ in 52 games, per Baseball Reference.

That was as good as it got for Rendon in Southern California. Injuries limited him to 205 games over the next five seasons, and his production fell well short of expectations when he did play. Since the start of 2021, he batted .231 with a .336 slugging percentage.

Rendon didn't exactly endear himself to fans with his overall attitude toward the sport, either.

During a 2024 interview, he said he would shorten the regular season if he were ever made the commissioner of baseball.

After those comments caused a bit of a stir, Rendon forthrightly told reporters that baseball "has never been a top priority."

"This is a job. I do this to make a living," he said. "My faith and my family come first before this job. So if those things come before it, I'll move on."

To a certain extent, it's refreshing when a pro athlete is that candid, and Rendon is far from the first who treated their career in such a dispassionate manner.

The idea that he never worked hard on his craft is also belied by everything he has achieved. Somebody coasting on pure talent and physical gifts doesn't get as far as he did.

But the optics of Rendon's remarks were terrible when he was making more than $38 million annually and missing more than half of the season. Regardless of whether any connection existed, plenty questioned whether his persistent injuries were a result of his perceived lack of commitment to baseball.

A buyout hastens the inevitable.

The Angels weren't going to re-sign Rendon when his contract expired next winter, and it's tough to imagine another team taking a flier on him. Having missed all of 2025 after undergoing hip surgery, the 35-year-old simply doesn't have much value to offer.

Now, Los Angeles has some added room in the payroll with Rendon's contract off the books, and he can embrace retirement a year earlier than he was expecting.