The Angeles announced this afternoon that Anthony Rendon will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a right hip impingement. He is being placed on the 60-day injured list. Left-hander Packy Naughton has been selected to the big league roster in a corresponding move, with Chris Rodriguez optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake to clear space on the active roster. The club expects Rendon to be ready for Opening Day 2022, reports Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.
Surgery is the culmination of what turned out to be a very trying season for the All-Star third baseman. Rendon landed on the injured list on three separate occasions, missing time due to groin, knee and hamstring problems. All of those injuries were related to Rendon’s left leg, though, with the right hip impingement a new issue that arose during his rehab from the hamstring injury, relays Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.
The series of health woes limited Rendon to a total of 249 plate appearances. His typically stellar production was merely average over that time, as the 31-year-old hit .240/.329/.382 with six home runs. This was arguably the least productive season of Rendon’s career, a far cry from the elite .310/.397/.557 line he posted between 2018-20.
Long-term absences to Rendon and Mike Trout have contributed to another mediocre season for the Angels in spite of an MVP-caliber year from Shohei Ohtani. The 53-54 Halos sit 6.5 games back of the Athletics for the final playoff spot in the American League, with the Yankees, Mariners, Blue Jays and Indians all also ahead in the standings. Their playoff chances are down to a meager 1.1%, in FanGraphs’ estimation, and losing Rendon will only make a miracle second half run all the more improbable. In all likelihood, Anaheim is destined for a seventh consecutive year without postseason play.
A return to health and prior form at the plate from Rendon will be critical to the Angels’ hopes of competing in 2022. With Trout, Ohtani, Rendon and Jared Walsh in the fold, the club is no doubt hoping to take another crack at competing next season. Rendon signed a seven-year, $245MM free agent contract over the 2019-20 offseason, so he’ll remain in the fold for quite some time. Under the terms of his backloaded deal, Rendon will earn $36MM next season, followed by successive $38MM salaries from 2023-26.
While Naughton surely wouldn’t have liked for his promotion to come under these circumstances, he is in line to make his big league debut. The 25-year-old began his career as an ninth-round draftee of the Reds out of Virginia Tech in 2017. He was flipped to the Angels last summer as part of the return for outfielder Brian Goodwin. Naughton has spent the 2021 campaign with Salt Lake, working to a 5.23 ERA across 51 2/3 innings in an extremely hitter-friendly league. While he has struck out a below-average 21.5% of opponents, the southpaw has only walked a tiny 5.7% of batters faced, a common theme throughout his minor league career.
Ren-done for the season. Oof.
Man, the Angels suck.
But at least they spend their money wisely.
For every Vlad Guerrero and Bartolo Colon free agent Signing that panned out, there is a Steve Finley, Gary Mathews Jr., Vernon Wells, Upton, Pujols, etc., that did not.
All good. They can just go and get Reimbursed by their friends at Fox Sports, who gave them a fat TV Contract. .
Don’t forget CJ Wilson
Josh Hamilton too
Well played, Chief.
CJ Wilson pitched almost 600 innings his first three years in a Anaheim. People are crazy to include him.
That’s offensive. Try Well played, Guardian.
I think they would sign CJ all over again if they actually had someone of his talent wanting to come pitch for us
Why is Vernon Wells always included with Angels “bad signings?” If you want to call it a bad trade, then ok.
Oh you mean the trade that sent Wells to the Angels for Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera? The one where Artie was so bitter about losing out on a Adrian Beltre trade that he overreacted and threatened Tony Reagins with his job if he didn’t pull it off? The one where the Angels took on the entire Wells contract except $5 mil?
Um yeah, bad trade.
Bc they are not real Angel fans.
He might be done for his career….
Wtf no he’s not
Not in 2021. A new hip is outpatient and a few months recovery. He will be back.
And so does his contract
comment doesn’t make any sense
It’s a pessimistic crowd here.
Yup. So true.
Angel hatred in full display.
And not a single LA logo stealing Dodger fan claiming responsibility?
They can keep the logo! It was an Angel pitcher to throw the first no hitter in Dodger stadium. Oh and it was an Angels’ home game to boot!
Ha ha. Nice. Thumbs up!
It’s the FA they sign believe drew the post above. While Rendon was super good with the Nat’s, everybody knew it would take top dollar and years with Boras as his agent, then throw in some blunders of the past, of which there have been a bunch. My favorite recent one is Upton, who never should have been signed to begin with, then after he voided the deal with his option? LA made things worse by further extending that deal, it was beyond nonsense.
While they didn’t sign this one, fact they paid ALL of contract and gave up value.. vernon Wells has to stick in fans of Angels still and wonder what they were thinking when they baled out toronto on that horrid deal.
Just a cpl super stinkers. letting lackey go. The FO has seemingly (since 70’s at least) signed the wrong guys most of the time.
Another kick to the cup for LAA., not that Rendone was ssetting the baseball world on fire.
Zero reason to think he can’t be productive when healthy. Granted that will be next season after 7 months of rest.
Making close to $40 million a year in his early to mid 30s? Not going to go well.
I have no problem with Rendon, and actually I’m a fan of the angels and the Trout Ohtani Rendon trio. I’m just saying it’s a bad contract that’s all
What a bummer. Was hoping he’d help boost their lineup and that they’d make a run. Guess we’re left with seeing what youngsters can do
Adell is OPS’ing over 2.000!
He hasn’t been traded yet?
Yes, to the Yankees for Frazier and Andujar. 😉
:/)
bUt caN tHeY pItCh?!
What a bummer…best wishes with recovery.
Go Angels !!
♂️
My Dynasty Fantasy baseball season was already in jeopardy with Trout and Rendon on the IL for quite some time but this sure puts a big cross over it.
My AL only team has Trout, Bregman, Rosario, and Bieber. Game over.
Thank God for Packy.
I love his name. Sounds like one of Al Capone’s henchmen.
hopefully whatever Packy does isn’t all for Naughton
Boardwalk Empire vibes.
His name sounds like an Adam Sandler character
This sounds troubling. He has left leg issues yet he has surgery on his right hip?
I’m typically not worried about a player who just turned 31, but these injuries seem like an issue.
Overcompensating for one injury often leads to opposite side injuries. I’m living proof of it.
He prolly tried to rush his rehab start, and like suffer said, it’s easy to hurt the other side of your body overcompensating when it hurts to walk
Well now he has officially been initiated into the Angels organization…season ending injury for someone with a minimal injury history. Welcome to the Team!
This season’s a wash anyway. They should’ve been bigger sellers at the deadline.
Wash _ rinse _ repeat. Such a shame, considering what could be if all that talent were healthy for an entire season.
Angels are a deeply flawed team. Health isn’t the issue.
But it’s one of them.
Health is an issue for half the league. Angels are poorly constructed.
It’s absolutely an issue. It’s just not the only one
He himself don’t care, he has said in the past he doesn’t watch baseball.
That’s a pretty big jump for me, @despicable.
My partner & I build hundreds of jobs/year. Yet, I have no desire watch building programs. Same with hunting. Love to do it, but don’t watch that either.
Jeff Kent wasn’t a fan of baseball, didn’t watch it, and had no idea who star players of the past were nor interest in them. Makes it harder to root for a guy, but doesn’t stop him from being good or hard-working.
I think that’s more common than many fans think. We obsess over player names, stats, careers… the players obsess about making themselves better.
So true Cosmo!
Im sitting here legs kicked up at my desk while those guys are at the gym or training or watching {current} film for tomorrow …It makes sense
God I hope this doesn’t turn out to be another albatross contract, like Wells or Hamilton.
That’s gonna happen regardless. Just hope you can find a way to win with the 2 best players in baseball on your team long before it happens.
What I meant was sooner than later. I don’t really consider Pujols contract to be an albatross.. Any half-wit knew what was coming.
With all of the pitching injuries the Angels usually get, you can’t blame Rendon for trying to fit in.
And only five more years to go on that contract. Angels are such a weird franchise.
You would think there would be a lot of respect for people when it comes to injuries lot of haters some Baseball fans can be really cruel I wouldn’t wish that on anybody l like keep a clear conscience
When they closed the ESPN comment boards, the jerks migrated here.
If only we could have a cap on the number of years a team can guarantee to a player. Another stripe to the zebra for those long term contracts.
I thought the contract was bad when he signed it, and it looks even worse now. I don’t understand why teams pony up big bucks for players in their 30’s, especially position players. Those contracts never work out.
Yeah, position players age much worse than pitchers. Fall off a cliff. See contracts for Miggy, Pujols. Wonder how Harper and Machado will look in five years time.
Wonder how Harper and Machado will look in five years time.
====================================
That question is actually the solution to the Angels issues.
In five years, both Harper and Machado will likely decline. But they have had three good years, and if you combine that with another 5 good years before declining, you can afford a couple of down years.
When the Angels acquire these guys, they theoretically have -0- peak seasons left, 2-3 good seasons left, and 4-5 weakish seasons left. You’d have thought that the age factors would occur to them, but they miss it over and over.
Anthony will be working at the grocery store, saving his pennies for someday.
He’ll be your private dancer, a dancer for money
Packy Naughton. Geezer with a pack of chewing tobaccer wedged between the cheek and gums. How old school is that?
Good riddance. This guy was a bum signing from the beginning. Albert 2.0.
What another Absolute bust signing by Arte
What a joke!
I wonder if we’re ever going to see a season where teams have all of their stars healthy most of the time… Would be nice to see sometime.
Unlikely, “i know.
Men!those angels and their contracts
That is the problem with Rendon, he can carry a team but he simply cannot stay healthy
Actually the Angels have some reasons for optimism. The young pitching, the emergence of Ohtani and Walsh, the young talented OFs, Manisian. They would be right there in the playoff hunt without the injuries to all their best hitters.
@Bart – yeah, even as an A’s fan I agree with that…
The pitching core are all twenty something – I mentioned this the other day on another thread – and they’ve just drafted 20 more. It seems that penny might have dropped.
As I said the other day though – what are they going to have to pay Ohtani? Next year it’s peanuts (by Angels standards) but 2023 is a one year arbitration ($35m if Mookie got $30m?) and then free agency. The Angels are looking at @S120m a year for Ohtani, Trout & Rendon in 2024… At least Uncle Albert – now – & Justin Upton are off the books well before then.
They’re an intriguing foe.
We’ll at least he’s not “Hollywood”.
Curse of the Angels
BUST
That contract is really paying off…
As if the Red Sox haven’t had their own contract misfires..
Why do people make comments like this? The Red Sox signing bad contracts doesn’t change whether or not this is a bad contract. It’s such a lazy response.
Why do people make comments like the one I replied to? Its also a lazy comment.
It’s also lazy to proclaim a contract will be horrible when it’s on year two of seven, and he had an excellent first year
Wrong side of 30 and hip issues that derailed his start last season and ended this season. I know he plays in the AL and saying he can always DH is such a cliché. It is a bad contract because his salary jumps $8 million dollars next year to $36 million and then to $38 million in each of the four remaining years
You need to produce a ton of value at the front end of these contracts to make them work out. Essentially losing a year in the front end of this, when he’s supposed to be at his best puts a huge strain on him to make up for that over the course of the contract. Only someone incapable of thinking through that would consider it lazy, but you do you.
____________________________________
Saying the post you replied to is lazy, so it’s ok for you to make a lazy response it basically the same as your comment about other teams giving out bad contracts.
BeforeMcCourt1 hour ago
It’s also lazy to proclaim a contract will be horrible when it’s on year two of seven
=====================================================
What else can one proclaim? It looked like a bad contract when it was signed. It is a bad contract right now. And it will likely continue to be a bad contract.
Sure, it is possible for anyone to come back and have a great season. But, generally speaking, it is less than likely.
@BeforeMcCourt So true, but trolls will be troll. I put more stock in what the experts think that cover and analyzes data over what internet trolls that don’t follow or understand the game. Injuries can happen to anyone, trolls dont understand data will be the first to call them out as bust.
“
Sure, it is possible for anyone to come back and have a great season. But, generally speaking, it is less than likely.”
You act like Rendon is some borderline DFA guy. He had back to back 6 war seasons and was kicking ass+ on pace for another 6 win season in 2020. Most of those guys don’t just fall off the cliff. The last 3 years he’s been 11th, 3rd and 10th for MVP. and his downturn is directly associated with an injury. He got hurt+tried to play through it.. to “earn his contract.”
There’s no reason to think Rendon could not be a 5 win player going forward. He’s already done it 4x not counting his 2020 when he was on pace for a 6 win season. So 5 of the last 8 and the last 3, he’s been a superstar. If he’s over the hill then basically any major leaguer is 58 games away from becoming a dud for you I guess
Great contact by the Angels signing this guy for like a decade….
Well 70% of a decade
But who cares about nearly 1/3 of your proclamation!?
If Packy Naughton played 100 years ago he would be a surefire hall of fame guy with a name like that.
He sounds like a bootlegger from the early 30’s.
I was about 3 seconds away from hiding or a Chicago gangster before I posted.
Most probable future injury to Stanton.
I’ve hated that contract since the moment it was signed. Ugly. Yet another guy cashing in big on one huge postseason, and this time the Halos took the bait…
I don’t like the contract either, but Rendon averaged like 6.5 fWAR the 3 years before FA, so it certainly wasn’t one huge postseason that he was cashing in on.
“Their playoff chances are down to a meager 1.1%, in FanGraphs’ estimation…”
Why does anyone care what FanGraphs says about anyone or anything? Do you think they’re all-knowing experts with a crystal ball?
This isn’t a playoff-caliber team, even with a healthy Trout and Rendon. You don’t win with a few star players. You win with pitching, defense, depth, and yes, chemistry. (See the NY Yankees for another good example of over-emphasizing offense and trying to win with a few big-name players.)
And no one should fault any player for being injured. In addition to Trout and Rendon, MLB is full of injured top-level players including Tatis, Acuna, Bregman, Yelich, Lindor, Castellanos, Buxton, deGrom, Kershaw, Bieber, Strasburg, Glasnow, Hader, Verlander, Sale, and more.
No one thinks fangraphs is the almighty. But we all can also see with any baseball knowledge this team is likely not a playoff team. Quoting those odds is only reaffirming the obvious
I’m not sure why you have some irrational hatred for Fangraphs. I’m going to guess it’s because they often point out things you don’t want to be true, regardless of whether they actually are.
Nonetheless, that 1.1% chance doesn’t come out of some crystal ball. It’s not some random opinion they’re throwing out there. It’s based upon solid statistical analysis accounting for a number of different factors I’m guessing you’ve never even thought of.
Forget track records and bodies of work. All you have to do is get yourself onto a playoff team somehow, then have the best 3 weeks of your life in October. If you can manage that, some team will give you all the money you will ever need…
…. Rendon had a fantastic track record though…
If only there was a hard luck team award.
AL Twins, Angels
NL Cardinals, Braves
Alright kids, what have we learned from the Angels’ erratic spending habits?
I’m gonna guess that the average fan has learned nothing. They’ll be clamoring for their team to sign the next mega deal immediately. And call the owner cheap if they don’t.
Nope, try again.
Hint: Team needs
Wuh?
How soon until he’s released and the Dodgers pick him off waivers?
Thank GOD he didn’t want to be a Dodger!! They have enough injuries already!!
This is going to go down as one of the WORST contracts in the history of baseball. Sucks that that Angels also had one of the other ones in Pujols. There should have been massive red flags when Rendon commented on his future and baseball.
Don’t worry Angel fan Trout’s right behind him with that horrific calf strain and if the calf strain doesn’t get him I’m sure he can bruise his thumb or something.
Just as the Angels finally get out from under the Pujols contract they find themselves stuck with another albatross contract.
It’s still falling off the books though, and they have a lot of major league ready cost controlled starting pitching coming up and that’s already cleaning things up on the mound.
Hi Anthony,
Can you fix the spelling error of the word ‘Angeles’? I think it should be ‘Angels’ not ‘Angeles’. Please & thank you.
“The ‘Angeles’ announced this afternoon that Anthony Rendon will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a right hip impingement”.
I expect the Angels to sign Carlos Rodon for big money in FA and you know what happens next.
He gets hurt and never produces there?
Not an Angel fan but seems like all their success was under Disney, and drafting/signing under Bill Stoneman
Bill Stoneman is underrated.
Bill Bavasi’s fingerprints were also on that run.
The Angels are closer than some people think. Before any off-season additions, they have seven solid cost controlled starters that are ready right now. And they have internal bullpen options in Bachman and Ortega, among others, that should be ready next season.
Shake and Bake.
These must have been the vibes ohtani felt when he signed there. He was looking for a perennial 75 win team with a few name brands and no pitching.
Angels should have sold off their soon to be free agents before the deadline. Even with Rendon their chances of making the playoffs were small. That poor decision makes the rebuild harder. Not sold on Adell. Can’t just buy 4/5s of a rotation in one offseason. Tuff road to climb to the playoffs.
Well fortunately for the Angels, the emergence of young SPs like Patrick Sandoval, Jaime Barria, and Jose Suarez have reduced the need to “buy 4/5 of a rotation.” Furthermore, for the first time in a while the Angels have promising youngsters like Chris Rodriguez and Reid Detmers on the cusp of contributing to the MLB rotation.
Griffin Canning remains in that mix as well, so the Angel rotation has actually become quite deep, though I don’t think anyone would mind landing a top line starter like, say, Noah Syndergaard.
But even so, it’s obvious the Angels will need to focus much of their available resources in the bullpen. That has been the area of greatest need over the past 2-3 years. The Angels have not had a lot of trouble building leads into the 6th & 7th innings. The problem has been finishing off those games. Had they converted even half of their blown saves over the last 2 years we would be having a very different conversation about this team.
The Angels should have roughly $80M under the CBT cap to spend in 2022, depending of course on the new CBA. That number is just based upon the contracts of Albert Pujols, Andrew Heaney, Dylan Bundy, Jose Quintana, and some others coming off the books. It’s going to be a very interesting offseason for the Angels, but if Perry Minasian can navigate it properly, the Angels could be in a MUCH better position heading into 2022.
Well said, Aaron. You obviously know the Angels very well.
@Aaron 13 great comment and just to add hope the Angels took all pitchers in a deep draft and some back on trades at the deadline; I am hopeful and they did not get stuck with Rocker in the draft!
Get well soon and come back stronger next year! We definitely need ya!! Comeback player of the year next year!!! Mark my words (well besides Trout)
Ouch. Did the dude throw in the towel on the year?
Ever talked to someone who had hip surgery? It’s not something you do for fun to enjoy some sick leave.
Long in the tooth are you?
Now that you made a great point, since when does one have hip surgery without any signs in the body, though I’m sure they were there. Just weird we are finding out such a serious injury from Mlb trade rumors first. How many 31 year old people have hip surgery to begin with.
Why did they keep Bundy and sent C. Rodriquez back to the minors after he last game he pitched his heart out?
For roster flexibility. Rodriguez has minor league options. Bundy does not. Just because Rodriguez was optioned does NOT mean he will not make his next scheduled start. The Angels simply needed to use his roster spot for someone else for a couple days, and since he wouldn’t be in a game anyway, what does it matter? He’ll be re-added to the active roster for his next start.
Bundy has been plain awful this year!!
He wasn’t today.
Get well AR
This is good news Angel fans, waiting another 3 months wasn’t the play and your going to have to use Macro eyes w Anthony from here on out