Anthony Rendon’s seven-year, $245 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels is making a strong case for the worst free-agent signing in MLB history.
The Angels signed Rendon following his stellar 2019 season with the Washington Nationals, where he helped lead the team to a World Series title while hitting 34 home runs and leading the league with 126 RBI. Los Angeles expected to acquire one of baseball’s premier third basemen, but the reality has been dramatically different.
Since 2021, Rendon has landed on the injured list 12 times and appeared in just 257 games between 2020-2024. Now, hip surgery will sideline him for the entire 2025 season. During his Angels tenure, he has managed only 22 home runs with a .717 OPS, 100 OPS+, and 3.7 bWAR.
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Ted Williams played more games during WWII than Anthony Rendon has with Los Angeles Angels
Rendon’s limited availability has created a striking historical parallel: he will have played fewer games for the Angels than Ted Williams did around his World War II military service.
Williams, the Boston Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer, was completing his rookie season when World War II began on September 1, 1939. He continued playing through 1942 before being drafted into the Navy, where he served as a Naval pilot from 1943-1945. Despite missing three full seasons to military service, Williams accumulated 586 games during this period — more than double Rendon’s appearances with Los Angeles.
The Angels remain on the hook for two more seasons of Rendon’s contract, with the $245 million investment yielding fewer games played than a Hall of Famer’s World War II-interrupted career — perhaps the most striking measure of this free-agent disaster.
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