MLB insider confirms what we all knew about Rendon's contract and Shohei Ohtani

It sure sounds like Arte Moreno and Anthony Rendon are going to haunt the Angels franchise for years and years to come.

Eric Cole

94th MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard / Sam Hodde/GettyImages

Going back to the Los Angeles Angels' failed 2023 trade deadline, it has been a painful near-calendar year for Angels fans. LA's 2023 season went down in flames, Shohei Ohtani left in free agency for the cross-town Dodgers, and the 2024 season has been mostly a colossal disappointment. Even the Angels' draft class this year has been looked upon with disdain by most experts.

Unfortunately, LA fans' pain is set to continue for a while. Not only is it likely that multiple Angels players who are actually playing well this year will get traded at the deadline, but now we have a report that Ohtani would have likely stayed with the Angels if they had matched the Dodgers' offer. The reason the team didn't move forward there will infuriate fans even further.

Full details of Shohei Ohtani's departure from the LA Angels continue to twist the knife in fans' hearts

It is hardly a secret that the Angels botched Ohtani's entire tenure and departure from the team mainly due to owner Arte Moreno lacking any self-awareness of his own shortcomings. However, what we didn't know was whether the Angels were ever actually in play to retain Ohtani, as LA never seemed to get serious in that department.

Unfortunately, it does seem that we now know that, given Ohtani's comfort level with the Angels, most think that he would have stayed if Arte Moreno and Co. had matched the massive contract offers he received from the Dodgers and Giants (complete with deferrals).

Even Angels starter Tyler Anderson thinks it would have happened, as he was quoted this week as saying, "That’s the word. He obviously did so well in Anaheim, and I feel like if he obviously wants to have a Hall of Fame career, if you stay with one team, that’s the way to do it. He was clearly comfortable there to put up the numbers he had and everything he did. I’m sure there’s something to that.”

As to why the Angels didn't match the offer, this is where things get truly painful. According to the report, few expected Moreno to pony up the cash to keep Ohtani because the team already had two huge contracts on their books. One is Mike Trout's deal, and while his injury issues have marred what has otherwise been a tremendous career in recent years, it's tough to have qualms with that payment. The other contract? Anthony Rendon's massive deal, which is looking like the worst contract in baseball at the moment.

The Angels' pain just never stops and is showing no signs of going away anytime soon ... not unlike Rendon himself.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout

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.