There has been speculation about when — or if — Anthony Rendon would return to the field after the Angels provided yet more bad news about the highly-paid third baseman this week, as GM Perry Minasian said he’d be out indefinitely due to hip surgery.
Now, some are wondering if the 34-year-old might just call it quits following his latest injury.
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, who has covered Rendon and the Angels, offered the idea on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast with Buster Olney.
“Talking to people who know Anthony Rendon, the thought is he might just retire,’’ Gonzalez said. “His [hip] surgery is a huge undertaking [and] he’s got only one year left on his contract after this season. I’ve got to think this is the end. I don’t think he plays another game for the Angels.”
Certainly, the Angels, who gave Rendon a seven-year, $245 million contract prior to the 2020 season, would sign up for that.
But Rendon is due more than $38 million both this season and in 2026 and the decision to retire and give that up would not thrill the MLB players’ association.
Perhaps a settlement could be reached, as the Orioles did with Chris Davis, who is on Baltimore’s payroll, receiving deferred payments, until 2037 — when he’ll be 51.
This might even appeal to Rendon, who has not been shy about expressing his lack of passion about playing the game.
Just a year ago, he gained attention when he expressed those thoughts during spring training.
“This has never been a top priority,” Rendon said last February. “This is a job. I do this to make a living. My faith and my family come first before this job. So if those things come before it, I’ll move on.”
At the time, he said he was not considering retirement.
“My enthusiasm has been the same since I got drafted, to be honest,” Rendon said. “I’ve been going back deleting old emails [and] I emailed myself a pros and cons [list] of why I wanted to stay in the game. This was in 2014. And so my thought process of the game has not changed since then.”
But his performance has.
He received NL MVP votes four times while with the Nationals from 2014-19 and starred during Washington’s World Series run in that 2019 season.
But Rendon hasn’t played more than 58 games in any of his five seasons with the Angels and that streak will no doubt continue this year.
He played up to expectations in the first season after signing the deal, when he stayed healthy and finished 10th in the AL MVP voting during the COVID-shortened season.
Since then, though, it’s been a disaster, as his availability and production have nosedived and there’s no end in sight.
