Anthony Rendon's latest injury cements Angels legacy as worst contract in MLB ever

Eric Cole

Los Angeles Dodgers v Los Angeles Angels / Brandon Sloter/GettyImages

There are a few constants when it comes to the Los Angeles Angels. Owner Arte Moreno is almost universally disliked for a litany of reasons. Fans continue to be worried about Mike Trout's future as he has battled health issues the last few years. But of course, the biggest constant has been Anthony Rendon and his complete inability to stay healthy and produce on the field.

Heading into the 2025 season, Rendon's contract was already the worst in baseball. Since signing a mega-deal before the 2020 season, he has AVERAGED just 51 games player per season over the past five seasons and has not hit a home run since July 2023. All of this while being the highest-paid third baseman in baseball. That's good work if you can get it.

Rendon's biggest problem — although not his only one — has been injuries, of which he has had many. Last season, a significant hamstring injury knocked him out for most of the year, and led to Angels' officials expressing exactly zero confidence in his future contributions.

Well, it's good that LA wasn't planning to rely on Rendon at all because on Wednesday it was revealed that he needs hip surgery and will be out for a extended period of time.

News: Anthony Rendon is having hip surgery, and is expected to miss a long amount of time.

He had a setback in his rehab the last few weeks.

Another injury for Rendon, and it now becomes unclear if and when he’ll play for the Angels again.
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) February 12, 2025

Anthony Rendon injury update: Angels third baseman may never suit up for LA again after hip surgery

Rendon was already on borrowed time heading into 2025. While he is still making north of $38 million a year for the next two seasons, the Angels were already sending signals that they were ready to move on. If he wanted to salvage his career, Rendon NEEDED to show up to spring training healthy and strong.

As it turns out, he is neither. While the exact details of his hip injury are not public knowledge just yet, all reporting indicates that Rendon is going to be out for a long time. Given that alone, it would not be shocking if the Angels take this opportunity to rip the bandaid off and cut their losses with Rendon.

Rendon's injury does open up a roster spot that presumably will go to Kenley Jansen, and removes some clutter from the Angels' lineup decision-making process. This isn't how anyone wanted Rendon's tenure to end, but it is also incredibly on-brand given how the first five years went as well.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.