Angels, Anthony Rendon love David Fletcher as much as we do

The Los Angeles Angels and All-Star Anthony Rendon are singing the praises of David Fletcher and his efforts on the diamond.

Joe Maddon famously said that he fell in love with David Fletcher “at the first double.” However, the love of the Angels’ sparkplug is running wild all over the rest of the team as well.

Fletcher, who has become the man who wears many hats in the Angels lineup, has been on an absolute tear to start the 2020 season. Over his first 18 at-bats (23 plate appearances), the team dynamo has accumulated 10 hits, four walks, two runs, and three RBI. For those doing the math at home, he’s slashing .556/.609/.667 with a 249 wRC+.

But as we’ve seen already in this short season, David Fletcher is more than just a man with the best bat handles in the game. His positional versatility has also been invaluable to an Angels team that was without Anthony Rendon (oblique) for the first four games and will now be sans Andrelton Simmons (ankle) for the foreseeable future.

That wasn’t lost on Rendon, who made his debut for the club on Tuesday, as Fletcher slid over from third to shortstop on the night. He spoke about it during the postgame Zoom call (h/t Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register).

“Man, he looks natural at any position he’s at, whether it be third, short, second,” said Rendon. “He’s just a grinder out there. If he was an Avenger, he’d be Captain America because he’s Mister Baseball.”

That’s pretty high praise from a player that is no slouch himself (and one that is making considerably more money).

Not to be outdone, the Angels themselves may have paid the ultimate respect to Fletcher after the game last night. On the team’s Twitter page, they appeared to pass the mantle of G.O.A.T. from the current top dog in Mike Trout to David Fletcher.

While it may be getting a little ahead of things to make that assertion, Fletcher’s efforts have nonetheless endeared him to the Angels and to fans alike. After a breakout 2019 campaign, the infielder is looking to show that he’s got more in the tank in 2020.

With a hot start already, more and more teams around baseball are finding that out first hand.