LA Angels: Giving letter grades for core position players in 2021

Giving letter grades for LA Angels’ core position players in 2021–Anthony Rendon: C+

Well, this year was very disappointing for one of the LA Angels’ $35 million men, Anthony Rendon.

Health kept Rendon out of all but 58 games, and he was pretty bad in those 58 games.

Hitting .240/.329/.382 (.712 OPS), Rendon only hit six home runs and only scored 24 runs. He only drove in 34.

He’s making an average of $35 million per year, so the expectations for him understandably need to be very high. He’s the second-highest average annual earner in the big leagues among position players (Mike Trout).

Rendon is very good defensively over at third base, so the criticism is only on who he is offensively, but he needs to step up next year. This team is counting on him, and has ever since they inked him to the massive seven-year/$245 million deal.

If this wasn’t the worst year of his career, it was certainly the second-worst behind his rookie season. His wRC+ was just 95, and he’s capable of way better production than that.

This guy willed a Wild Card team to a championship just two years ago. It’s time to return to that level of production.