2 reasons why the Angels should DFA Anthony Rendon, 2 why they shouldn't

LA Angels should DFA Anthony Rendon because he hasn't been productive when healthy

The one thing Angels fans have been able to cling onto with Anthony Rendon dealing with these injury woes throughout the years is the fact that he should still be a good player when he finally is playing. Unfortunately, that simply hasn't been the reality.

Rendon had a strong first year. Nobody ever criticizes him for the 2020 campaign. It's hard to put the blame on him for the injuries either, considering we have no idea what he's actually dealing with. What we can criticize him for is his play on the field, and when healthy, it hasn't been good outside of 2020.

From 2021-2023, Rendon has slashed .235/.338/.364 with 13 home runs and 80 RBI in 148 games played. In virtually one full season, Rendon has hit just 13 home runs with a .701 OPS and a 94 OPS+. For one of the highest-paid players in baseball, that simply isn't good enough. Rendon has been below league-average offensively for a three-year span.

This season Rendon got off to a pretty good start but lacked any sort of power. Once he started dealing with injuries, his play declined a lot. Overall, he slashed .236/.361/.318 with two home runs and 22 RBI in 43 games. He was drawing walks and had some clutch moments in April, but that's about it. This doesn't even count for his abysmal defense this season.

The Angels obviously get nothing when Rendon is out, but in the rare times he's actually played, he's been a non-factor.

LA Angels shouldn't DFA Anthony Rendon because they have to pay him anyway

The Angels are stuck with this Anthony Rendon contract whether they like it or not. The only way they could've possibly gotten out of it was if they included him in a Shohei Ohtani trade. With the deadline passed, Ohtani is still here and Rendon is as well.

The Angels owe Rendon $38 million annually through the 2026 season. That's three more years of those $38 million payments after this one. Hard to fathom. With there being no way out, you might as well keep him, right?

If the Angels were to DFA Rendon, the only way they could get off of the money is if another team claims him off of waivers (never going to happen). They could hypothetically trade him and eat a large amoutn of not all of the money, but the Angels would have to give something up alongside Rendon while also getting nothing in return. That doesn't seem worthwhile either.

The Angels are stuck with Rendon, so they should just try to see if he ever does anything. If he can ever be a good player for them, that's great! If he continues to spend most of his seasons on the IL, that's nothing new. If he's released and signs elsewhere, that's less good. The Angels won't want to pay for him to play elsewhere.

LA Angels should DFA Anthony Rendon because he's brought more harm than good

The Rendon contract has obviously been an albatross mainly because of the injuries. He's barely played in each of the last three seasons, and that's been a huge problem for the Angels.

Injuries, while frustrating, are part of the game. They're something fans shouldn't get on a player too much for, because players aren't trying to get hurt.

What's fully in a player's control are some of the comical things that have taken place throughout this deal. Remember the Mariners brawl? Right in the thick of things was Anthony Rendon, wearing a cast, fighting against Seattle's Jesse Winker. While it's good to see Rendon sticking up for his teammates and not injuring himself further, he got hit with a five-game suspension.

Opening Day of this season was another example of Rendon bringing things onto himself. Rendon got himself involved with an altercation with a fan which got him another four-game suspension. Of course, we have no idea what the fan said to spark this altercation, but seeing Rendon be involved in something like this on Opening Day was frustrating.

While Rendon continues to miss time due to injuries, his attitude towards the media has been another negative in a long line of them. Rendon's unnecessarily snarky responses whenever he's asked how he's feeling or if he knows anything about a timeline have gone from funny to annoying.

Rendon's reluctance to speak to the media is understandable, but his attitude is completely unnecessary. It's hard to fault him for getting injured, but suspensions and an unnecessarily bad attitude is frustrating to see for Angels fans that just want to see this guy play baseball.

LA Angels shouldn't DFA Anthony Rendon because he could easily succeed elsewhere

Whenever teams think of making a trade, something that brings them some level of pause is the fact that this player could succeed in a new location more than they were with you. That's why division rivals often don't make big trades.

The same can be said about players being DFA'd. We saw this exact thing play out with Albert Pujols at the end of his Angels tenure. The unproductive Pujols was DFA'd by the Angels and had a 99 OPS+ with the Dodgers. He went from doing nothing as an Angel, to being average as a Dodger. The next season, of course, Pujols had a terrific year in what was his final year in the majors with St. Louis.

Anthony Rendon is still just 33 years of age, and he can easily produce in a new environment. This was an MVP-caliber player in Washington and even his first year in Anaheim before the injuries mounted. If he got a fresh start with a new fan base in a new city, who knows what Rendon could do?

Rendon could easily just spend more time on the IL with his new team, but he can also join a team like the Astros and hit 30 home runs while hitting .500 against the Angels.

The Halos are stuck paying him anyway, so they're better off seeing if he can do something with them instead of paying him to play against them for a team the Angels could very well end up competing with.