Congrats to LA Angels’ Anthony Rendon, who played in a baseball game over the weekend

It finally happened. Anthony Rendon finally played in a baseball game.

Eric Cole

Arizona Diamondbacks v Los Angeles Angels / Ronald Martinez/GettyImages

For the Los Angeles Angels, the impossible finally happened. After 237 days and a host of missteps with media members and, well, anyone who made the mistake of asking him about baseball, Anthony Rendon finally played in a baseball game over the weekend as he took the field in the Angels' spring training matchup against the Royals.

Rendon last played in a game before this weekend with the Angels on July 4th, 2023. He went 0-2 with two strikeouts -- which matched up well with his cameo appearance this spring training, as he went 0-2 with a strikeout. He last homered for the Angels on July 1st, 2023, and his last multi-hit game came on May 12th against the Guardians.

To say that Rendon's return was a long time coming is a gross understatement, but Angels fans may not want to hold their breath that it will stick.

Rendon's spring training return was a nice first step for LA Angels, but he still has a long road ahead

For Rendon, it is definitely a positive that he was able to play early in spring training. Over the last four seasons, he has averaged 50 games a season and a .758 OPS, the latter of which is buoyed by his strong 2020 season. Once you take that season out, his average OPS when he has actually played dips down to .701, which would have made him around the 116th-ranked qualified hitter in baseball in 2023, just ahead of the offensive juggernaut that is 35-year-old Whit Merrifield.

Look, poking fun aside, the Angels really needed Rendon to take this step. Rendon has basically been nothing but a headache for three seasons now, as not only has he been getting paid a lot of money to do very little, but he has also brought a lot of bad press on himself for how he has chosen to communicate with the media, especially when it comes to his status and how he feels about the game of baseball.

Perhaps this is the first step towards redemption for Rendon. If he can somehow put together something close to a full season without getting hurt or angering the majority of Angels fans, that is going to be a huge win for him and the franchise. The team and fans want him to succeed, even if he doesn't care whether or not he pulls it off. Given his $38 million a year price tag, that is pretty much all that we can hope for at this point.

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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.