Anthony Rendon has been retired from being a productive professional baseball player for a while now, and he could soon be making it official.
Appearing this week on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast, Alden Gonzalez of ESPN shared an interesting report about the Los Angeles Angels third baseman Rendon. Gonzalez said that the belief is that Rendon may retire in the wake of his latest injury (a hip issue that will require surgery).
“Talking to people who know Anthony Rendon, the thought is he might just retire,” said Gonzalez, per Beyond the Halo. “Hip surgery is a huge undertaking. He’s got only one year left on his contract after this season. I gotta think this is the end. I don’t think he plays another game with the Angels.”
Rendon is 34 years old now and has been cashing checks from the Angels to do next to nothing for the last five years now. The Halos gave Rendon a seven-year, $245 million contract before the 2020 season, only to manage a return-on-investment of 257 total games played from Rendon and an overall batting average of .242. Rendon owns permanent real estate on the injured list at this point, and his contract from the Angels has become arguably the single biggest instance of legalized robbery in the history of North American sports.
If Rendon were to retire, he would forfeit the roughly $75 million still left on his Angels deal over the next two seasons. The Angels could obviously reach a settlement with Rendon in which he would retain some of the remaining money, and that might not be a bad deal for him given that he has already taken $170 million and counting from the team.
The running joke for years now is that the former All-Star Rendon supposedly hates playing baseball (which his own words and actions have done nothing to refute). If it is indeed Rendon’s wish to never play the sport again, that may soon be coming true with a formal retirement.
