Anthony Rendon To Undergo Hip Surgery, Facing “Long-Term” Absence

I would bet real money that Rendon took a good hard look, like at a forensic level, at the language in his contract, in order to pull this off without being in breach of contract. I am sure he paid close attention to the Yoenis Cespedes situation and learned from it- Cespedes losing like $26M off that $110M deal because Cespedes so blatantly violated basic expectations and obligations of his Mets deal to avoid playing while still collecting his paychecks, Rendon has managed to actually pull off while keeping every penny he was owed; Cespedes did not do this so successfully.

Here’s a few scenarios of similar ilk:

1) David Wright/Prince Fielder: their bodies actually truly failed them and they were genuinely unable to play/forced to medically retire early while on large deals. Not their fault. Bad luck. They try to recoup some through

2) Jacoby Ellsbury / Carl Crawford, etc: bad fit between player and club. There’s a mutual “parting of the ways” they mutually stop trying to reconnect on field. The club designs their roster without the player as part of the equation and consider their salary a sunk cost.

Granted, the Yankees and Ellsbury played a blame game and the Yankees tried to punish Ellsbury after the fact, but the evidence shows both sides willingly just kinda forgot they were in business together. Like breaking up without having the break up conversation or official declaration.

3) Anthony Rendon and Yoenis Cespedes: Gets the guaranteed mega contract and promptly quiet quits baseball, using a constant rotating sourced injuries, IL stints and rehab assignments as an excuse to avoid actually playing.

Again, the difference is that there was a ton of evidence that Cespedes basically committed fraud and functioned like he wasn’t a professional athlete and could just enjoy his horse ranch and play rancher in Florida while collecting his $27.5M a year from the Mets. He was investigated by the Mets, they proved he violated language in his contract, which U.S. in most players’ contracts, stipulating they avoid certain physical activities that could reasonably put them at risk of injuries that would prohibit or limit their ability to be available and healthy for their professional sports duties and in season schedule. Cespedes was blatant enough that the Mets called him on it legally and were able to cut his salary by tens of millions (it was something like $25M or $30M that they managed to avoid paying him out of his $110M deal) and dangled the final $6M in front of him, informing him he wouldn’t get another penny and might even be shed to retrieve part of his already paid out salaries unless he made basic reasonable efforts to actually get healthy and play in good faith for the Mets.

I think Rendon studied the Cespedes situation very carefully and figured out how to pull off a way more successful and legally sound version of avoiding playing without actually violating the contract and then losing out on his salaries; thus Rendon got to legally force the Angels to pay him his $38M+ annual salaries without getting docked and he got to avoid playing.

It’s the ultimate heist.