The Angels finalized their buyout with Anthony Rendon shortly before the New Year. That was known to include some kind of contract restructure to defer his $38MM salary for the upcoming season, the final of his seven-year contract.
Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register reported last night that it’ll be an even five-year deferral plan. The Angels will pay him $7.6MM annually between 2026-30. That’ll save them $30.4MM this year relative to what they would have paid had there been no buyout. Rendon will not play for the team again. He is not officially retiring but it certainly seems as if his MLB career is over.
Will the Angels reinvest any of their short-term savings? Sam Blum of The Athletic wrote this week that’s not guaranteed, noting that general manager Perry Minasian avoided a question about a potential payroll reduction. “I’m not going to make any statements. We’ll see where the offseason takes us. There’s still a lot of good players available. There’s still time to improve the club,” the GM said.
The Angels entered the offseason with $126.7MM in guaranteed salaries. They’ve added another $12.95MM via one-year contracts for Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, Jordan Romano and Alek Manoah. Their arbitration class will cost roughly $20MM. That’d put them around $160MM before accounting for minimum salaries to round out the roster. Rendon’s deferrals drop that back to the $130MM range. The Halos opened the ’25 season with a $193MM payroll.
If they’re willing to match last year’s spending, they’d have the money to be involved on any free agent. Only owner Arte Moreno and the front office know where they’ll draw the line. The Angels are among the nine teams whose local broadcasting contract with Main Street Sports collapsed this week. That’s again an uncertain revenue stream. There has also been speculation that the Angels could be reluctant to make multi-year commitments with the likelihood of a lockout in December. A contract gap was reportedly a big reason that discussion with their preferred managerial candidate, Albert Pujols, didn’t result in a deal. They eventually hired Kurt Suzuki on a one-year contract, an atypically short managerial commitment.
The Angels continue to have glaring needs around the roster. Second base, third base and center field are all concerns on the position player side. Catcher is as well, though Logan O’Hoppe has enough of a track record that it’s understandable they’re sticking with him and Travis d’Arnaud for another season. They’re light at least one mid-rotation starter and would benefit from another high-leverage reliever, even if the bullpen market has essentially dried up.
What a bum
Calling him a bum is an insult to all bums everywhere.
Aren’t you guys being a tad harsh on Tony Two-Bags? Wasn’t he constantly and legitimately injured? Didn’t he have multiple surgeries and rehabs, implying that he was working to get back on the field?
I have an idea. MLB should adopt a rule that a team can fire a guy without paying out the rest of his guarantee. Here’s how it could work. The Angels hold a hearing at the stadium. Angel fans are the jurors and are admitted for free. Each side makes its case. Fans that pay insane prices for tickets and concessions can vote out a guy like Rendon who publicly admits he’s lost his passion for the game. See ya Anthony! You’re fired! Do not pass payroll. Do not collect your last 40 million.
BPax,
Incredibly bad idea. Do you think player salaries are responsible for the “insane prices for tickets and concessions?” No, the owners set the prices based on supply and demand, taking as much as possible from the public while doing all they can to keep costs down.
That sounds like capitalism, except they want the public to build them stadiums, and they artificially keep player costs down through through 6-7 years of control of MLB salaries and caps on draft and international signing spending. Owners want to have their cake and eat it, too, and they want A LOT of cake.
@gbs Capitalism also has a free market. MLB is anything but that. They are in a system that suppresses any true competition. And of course as you mention the whole stadium thing.
These pro teams have become giant wealth accumulation vehicles and tax havens for the ultra rich.
He was hurt trying to play. Some of his statements certainly hurt his public image but he really tried to play. As an Angels fan I don’t really blame him. It is just that the baseball-dumb owner decided Rendon would make him more money instead of pitchers the team really needed.
His statements reflect that he probably didn’t try as hard as someone who really wanted to play. That’s why his public image is less than stellar.
While with the Angels he had injuries on both hips, groin, hamstring, wrist, shin and back issues. All baseball related injuries. I doubt you would be able to even stand. He tried to come back from all of them.
Right, he had multiple surgeries just to avoid playing.
Socalbball – Should have had his mouth wired shut while he was in in one of those surgeries, because that’s the issue people truly had with him. Stevie Wonder reads Shakespeare better than Holmes there could read a room.
wow, you are a complete moron
So, tell your kids they are less important than your job.
That job will serve his kids very well
That and when he grabbed the fan in the stands.
The problem is none of us know the true extent of his injuries. I know he had surgeries and felt pain. But we don’t know if the injuries were significant enough to warrant a surgery on other players. Meaning would other players have simply dealt with the pain. We just don’t know.
Lloyd: Can any doctor, trainer, or physical therapist corroborate your hunch, I wonder?
Hurt himself getting on and off his couch. On the IL so often that we all were surprised when he went on it again… never knew he came off of it.
He could have opened up his mouth. I wish he was on the Mets when he left D.C. Guy was seemingly cancer.
He’s a rich-bum
Because he has millions in the bank?
PMH,
Your accusation reads like an admission.
Professional Mozeliak Hater “What a bum”
I disagree. He’s a formerly very good player. He ended up having a series of legit injuries and I think it frustrated him more than anyone else…..and led him to make some tone deaf comments to the press that only made things worse.
It was a guaranteed contract. That means that the player gets paid even if injured. Teams don’t make guaranteed contracts because they are benevolent, they do it because it is often the only way to sign better players. Those that think Rendon should have given back money are being ridiculous.
Do you indignant folks realize that Mike Trout only made $510K his rookie year…..putting up a 10.5 WAR, finished second in the MVP voting (really should have won it) and won ROY? And the next season Moreno only offered him a $490K raise? Where was the indignation then?
Sealbeach Comber,
Great comments. Many fans rarely acknowledge the massive savings teams make on players their first 6-7 years while being more than happy to rail on players who decline later in their careers.
I think much of this stems from fans cheering for their team over any particular player (with very rare exceptions), so they want what’s best for the team over the players.
Living the dream
Damn deferrals.
Tucker.
That contract is the gift that keeps on giving…
Now that the Rendon era is said and done for the Angels, who’s the next guy they’ll sign to a big contract only to get burned?
No idea who, but it will probably be the next guy they sign to a big deal.
Arenado.
1. Trout 2. Schanuel 3. Zeto 4 Adell 5. Ohoppe 6. Lugo. 7. Moore 8. Grissom 9. Rada
Should be in the running for third place if things all break right.
103 loss lineup
Length of contract is what killed Pujols being named manager? I know no one wants a one year deal, but how much more cash does Pujols need?
At least we can all stop singing “How Can I Miss You if You Won’t Go Away.”
Thank God I don’t have to read stuff on Rendon anymore. It’s now 7.5 million a year…LET IT GO!!!! It’s over.
Good night, sweet prince.
Rendone. Beyond, Beyond stink!
Him, Bonilla, and Chris Davis should vacation together.
See
Both him and Strasburg mentally checked out after 2019.
Physically, yes, their bodies broke down. Mentally, they both tried to get back on the field for years.
Deferrals!!!!??? Omg the angels are ruining baseball!!!!
Retirement. I just wonder if he’s ever felt guilty for collecting on something he didn’t deserve.
I remember when players use to turn down money after injuries forced them to retire in the past, but now the agents, union and amount of money pretty much prevents that from happening.
I remember when owners paid for their own stadiums, but now the politicians gift them stadiums to make billionaires richer at everyone else’s expense.
Yeah they are totally playing off the dodgers model… Getting this guy off the team is a win no matter how you slice it.
Farte not smarte
you don’t have to like Rendon but you can easily see his frustration level regarding his injuries and that can create for his outburst on his relationship to his employment (baseball) and his family
2021: hip surgery.
2022: right wrist surgery
2023: fractured tibia.
2025: hip surgery again
getting cut on is something much more that i’m sore and can’t play or not trying. one can certainly see that his injuries could have sapped his abilities and desire
Like others, I grew to dislike him because almost every time he talked it sounded like he didn’t care to be a baseball player anymore. Maybe the injuries had something to do with how he spoke. But maybe his lack of interest led directly to all the injuries.
I watched him come up. He was a great player for a time. Glad I didn’t have to watch him as an Angel.
Honest question, and I didn’t see it in the full article either, but why would Rendon or his agent agree to this, unless he’s also getting paid interest in the deferred payments? Doesn’t seem to be any incentive for him, otherwise.
He is getting paid to literally do nothing. He doesn’t want to suit up anymore, probably hasn’t since he signed the ludicrous contract. Once he laid hands on that one fan he should have been banned.
You’re right, that fan should be banned for life.
Rendon tried to play with a broken leg but go ahead and believe he didn’t want to “suit up “ after he signed his deal.
@fansince By broken leg, do you mean the fracture that 4 doctors(2 of which were his) deemed a bone bruise??
It was a fifth Dr Rendon found, who knows if that was the only one or if he went to numerous. But lets not act like he was suffering through a compound leg fracture or anything remotely close to a break. Thats if it was even a hairline fracture…
@tiger3232
That’s a statement that ignores the fact MLB has to approve any player IL placement but why let facts get in the way of your hate for him because doesn’t have the obsession to play baseball that you think he should have.
@fans Regardless wither outcome he would have been ILeligible. Im going to have to go with the opinion of the majority(4 of at least 5 DRs) and half that majority were DRs of his choosing….
If that helps you sleep at night, enjoy the hate.
As someone who had to go to 4 doctors at different reputable orthopedic clinics to get a significant labrum tear properly diagnosed, I find the public facts more believable than the story you’re trying to spin.
4 DRs found no fracture on his imaging. Thats the reality of it, you can try and spin it by calling saying his leg was broke, thats an exaggeration to say the least and possibly an outright lie.
There is no way 4 DRs missed a fracture of any significance, thats just reality. Id say its a near certainty he went to numerous other DRs as well before the DR in HOU found the supposed fracture.
As for public facts, there was a 4 DR panel created 2 of which were selected by Rendon who all found nothing. Thats not spun in any way that is reality.
I think a professional athlete knows something is wrong. I understand your point, how could several doctors miss it? But opinion still trust people to know their own bodies.
Maybe there’s some tax advantage to it where in long run he doesn’t have to pays much in taxes by stretching it out.
Maybe this way he isn’t contractually obligated to put in effort to get into shape to play.
The California Angels are cursed. It’s harder to have as much bad luck with major free agent contracts than putting together a good farm system; yet, the Angels get scalped on both fronts. Then there’s the way they lose players in ways that are unthinkable; see Lyman Bostock, Nick Adenhart, and Tyler Skaggs. It’s odd.
It’s the Walter O’Malley curse
2020
Lyman Bostock-Murdered
Nick Adenhart- Killed by a Drunk Driver
Tyler Skaggs- Self Inflicted
Dont forget the closer Moore killed himself after losing a shot at world series to the red sox.
And Bruce Heinbeckner or Mike Miley, auto accidents.
Just out of the organization, Chico Ruiz, auto accident, Luis Valbuena, murdered, Or more distanced, Jim McGlothlin who died of a brain tumor at 32.
I was at the Donnie Moore game. Nosebleed seats in left center, where the rock pile is now. I’ll never forget seeing Reggie Jackson with his arm around Gene Mauch, each at the top step of the dugout, ready to charge out of the dugout in celebration. Then, Henderson changed everything.
Wow Rendon gets paid to do nothing for 5 more years, just like last year.
That scene from Seinfeld with George getting his severance from the Yankees (“the Summer of George”) came immediately to mind.
Frolf, Jerry, frisbee golf!
$245mill for 1095 plate appearances .. has any player been paid more and done less ?
alstott40-Well there was his teammate pitcher from the WS. Pretty close to the same amount of money, but he played less. Can you imagine if the Nationals had resigned both?
Kris Bryant is competing for that title.
Should’ve just ripped the band aid off. Even if the Angels took the full savings and signed Eugenio Suarez and Zach Littel this is still a bad team with no depth.
1992, during an East Coast road trip, the Angels were traveling by bus from New York to Baltimore when the driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. Thirteen members of the Angels’ traveling party were injured, including manager Buck Rodgers, who spent three months in the hospital recovering.
Let’s not forget about Donnie Moore shot himself and his wife
Tendon’s health and contract are classic examples of why owners dont want long term contracts.
If the contracts are insured then that money shouldn’t count towards the salary number.but the team should have to spend that much more..
Healthy Tendon’s are classic. Let’s insure all contracts.
I’m sure some of it was insured
Dang, looking at this makes me realize: 1. The Angels spend money 2. Angel fans are strong and loyal (trust me, I have some in my family and they make me go bonkers when they root for them while still living in LA 3. The ownership and front office are incompetent, they just can’t put a good team together (this is the most important point)
The career of Anthony Renbum is finally over. And now his watch has ended.
This was not a Gil Meche move from Anthony Rendon.
The Angels just settled a wrongful death lawsuit that will cost Moreno around $100 million. They have no money to spend even after saving $30 million by deferring part of Rendon’s salary.
Angel owner is a billionaire. How do they not have money to spend.?
Hw owns the radio station that broadcast the games.
The team still gets money from the Network TV packages. !/30 owner of MLB Network
Do you want to start a go fund page for Arte? Be my guest.
Nor saying I feel sorry for Moreno at all. He deserved what he got hit with in that case.
Just saying any liquidity he had is gone. Being a billionaire in net worth doesn’t mean you have that in cash just lying around waiting to be spent.
Turn the page on Rendon. They now have an xtra 30 mil to either spend or sit on their hands. or Go get a real 3rd baseman.
The Angels Are Broke and Arte’s to Blame
Let’s stop pretending. The Angels aren’t spending because they can’t. No cable deal. No Bally Sports. No streaming partner. No money.
Bally Sports West is bankrupt. Arte Moreno didn’t secure a new TV contract. That’s $100 million in lost revenue gone. And without that cash, there’s no budget for free agents, no upgrades, no hope.
Meanwhile, Arte’s still hiding in the shadows. No press conferences. No plan. Just silence while the franchise crumbles.
We’re not just broke we’re invisible. No big free agent signings No spending. No way to watch the games. Arte Moreno has officially run this team into the ground.
MLB will step in and make sure we get televised games. Arte will get revenue from that.
Bobby Bonilla had more WAR for the Mets than Rendon for the Angels. Got to be the worst contract ever.
If we are going by WAR, Rendon has several more with the Angels than Kris Bryant does with the Rockies. I guess Bryant’s awful contract gets less attention because he hasn’t made any comments that lead people to think he isn’t working hard to contribute.
I was going to say Davis who had negative WAR after signing that deal with the Orioles.
MrLOLMet: It was a solid signing, but because of never-ending injuries that could not have been anticipated, it ended up being a major bust. That’s not what “Worst contract” means.
Strasburg was MUCH worse, because it was a significantly stupider decision.
How “sporting” of him.
Do we get to celebrate every year like we do Bobby Bo’s?
It says a lot how BADLY they wanted him off the roster that they’re willing to fulfill their contract obligations using lengthy means (and a lot of interest included!!!)
No interest is included, which is significant. The five years of payments exactly equal the balance of his contract. Strangely, nobody is asking why Rendon would agree to this, when the Angels are contractually obliged to pay it off now. Some other arrangement must have been made off to the side of this deal. Otherwise he has zero incentive to take it.
How do you know what provisions are in the contract?
You don’t.
I don’t
The MLBPLA must of been okay with it. I don’t hear them complaining about it.
Not sure what you mean by provisions, but we do know his 2026 salary and that it will now be paid out over five years, with no interest on the balance, as far as has been reported. The point is, we don’t know why he agreed to this deferral deal when he could have insisted on payment in full now. This tells me a significant part of the story is missing from the reporting. I suspect he’s being paid interest per the terms of the CBA, but we don’t know because nobody reporting on this story is asking. They are just assuming he made an interest-free loan to the team, which seems unlikely.
Dolemite: Isn’t that precisely what BlueSkies said: that he doesn’t (none of us do) know what the provisions are??
@ Blue-I don’t know. I assume there must be some advantages to stretching out that he liked and agreed too. Like I said before, maybe less taxes taken out.
Any lawyers here on MLBTR?
Financially, there aren’t any advantages to waiting five years to receive money you could be paid now. The discount on this is around 20%. Because the CBA is very clear about the terms of players making loans to teams, including the amount of interest to be paid, I feel pretty certain this is how it is being handled, and that the reporting simply isn’t correct.
Dolemite, There is only one contract, the UPC, and you can find it in the CBA. Teams can add only specific clauses for dangerous activities to that contract and they are spelled out in the CBA.
BlueSkies: Maybe Rendon, his agent, and the union agreed to the deal on the condition that Tony would not be required to report to spring training.
If they’d simply released him, as is the usual practice, he’d be a free agent and would not have to report anywhere — and technically at least he’d be eligible to be signed by another team at the MLB minimum. Why they didn’t do this in the normal way is unclear. Most likely, he’s being paid interest on the deferral, consistent with the CBA. My curiosity about this is due to the unusual way this situation is being handled. I can’t recall another one like it.
Or rehab for absolutely no reason.
I’m not sure, but it seems like a Carl Pavano- situation.
Yankees players were getting so frustrated that he was out all the time and not showing interest in helping the team win.
Blueskies, Rendon chose to do what was in the best interest of the team and his teammates.
As you said, he didn’t have to so this. All he had to do to get paid all of it this year was show up and do the rehab work.
For those of us that have been through rehab after a major surgery we know it is painful and much harder than just participating in our chosen sport.
Maybe his incentive was to do rehab with a goal of simply being able to walk without a pronounced limp instead of rehabbing to be able to play baseball at the elite level he was used to before the long list of serious injuries and surgeries.
He gave up millions for his team and teammates and to avoid rehab? Go ahead, pull the other one.
The Angels did not have a choice about paying Rendon. He has a guaranteed contract and as long as he was willing to show up and do the incredibly hard and painful rehab from his latest hip surgery, they were required to pay him.
In this case Rendon took the teams offer to pay him what he is owed over 5 years instead of receiving it in 6 monthly payments during the regular season. He recognized that while he might work his way back onto the field towards the end of the season, he would not be at his best and that would be a disservice to the team. He did the right thing.
The team did only what was required in his contract.
The statements weren’t great but i can understand that a player is losing motivation if several years in a row he is hurt and having constant pain.
Maybe he never loved the game and played for money or he got good because his dad forced him to train but maybe injury and pain over years robbed his desire.
Still of course he should have voiced it differently
It takes too much commitment of time and effort to be elite at anything to not love what you are doing.
I could see how continual rehab year after year could rob him of that love for playing. How it could make him not want to go through months and months more of intense rehab only to play a month or two this year for a team destined to lose many more games than they win.
Why go through the pain and effort for a team that is just going through the motions with no intention to win?
But that is just my guess.
Often that is true but there are cases of parental coercion that causes athletes to be elite at things they don’t love. This can hold well into adult age when the athletes are legally independent because they hate what the parents did to them but their brain was manipulated into tying their self esteem and even feel of being loved to athletic success.
Read the book of Andre Agassi
I guess it was silly of me to ask a question here and expect even an educated guess of an answer. But at least I know several people’s stances on the American economy and healthcare system.
I’ll just guess Rendon is getting a little extra pay in interest for agreeing to this, because he’s clearly not a selfless person and wouldn’t do such a thing for free. And he’s also not as good of a person as Gil Meche.
According to the publicly disclosed terms of this agreement, the payments exactly equal the balance of his contract. So, with no interest paid, it amounts to a free loan to the team. We don’t have to characterize the man as good, bad, or otherwise to wonder why he accepted these terms. The Angels have been pretty cagey in describing the details, so this suggests something undisclosed is involved. Maybe some heads-up sportswriter will decide to dig in and try to find out. But I doubt it, since sportswriters are not very heads-up when it comes to financial issues.
Can he still play though? Or he seriously injured?
Now, if someone would buy out Arte’s contract, that would be something.
Kris Bryant next.
What a flat out turkey.
He should be arrested for theft, fraud, and impersonating a baseball player.
Even after the 5 year restructure, the Angels are still paying Rendon more money than any of their free agent signings for 2026 so far this free agency
Arte Moreno: The GM, the Scout, the hombre
Arte Moreno did say he followed Rendon out of Rice University like a scout with a checkbook. Arte handpicked him. Said he knew what he was getting. So when Rendon’s contract turned into a $245 million there was no one else to blame.
But that’s Arte’s M.O., isn’t it? He thinks he’s smarter than the baseball lifers. Smarter than the scouts, the GMs, the managers. That’s why he keeps hiring first-timers to run the show—Perry Minasian, Billy Eppler, Jerry Dipoto. All rookies. All yes-men. The only exception? Joe Maddon. And even he got canned midseason.
Remember 2019? Gerrit Cole was on the market. So was Zack Wheeler. The Angels needed pitching. Everyone knew it. Arte went shopping… and came home with Rendon. A third baseman. Because Arte does what Arte wants.
And now? We’re stuck in a cycle of splashy signings, no depth, and a rotation need a prayer. And a church choir The man who made his fortune in advertising can’t sell fans on hope anymore. Can’t even get a cable company to broadcast Angel games.
Arte’s not just the owner. He’s the GM, the scout, the saboteur. And the scoreboard doesn’t lie.
I hate revisionist history.
I was the only person on this board who wanted to go after Wheeler, but even I, who was all Wheeler quickly understood he wasn’t going to sign with a West Coast team.
People also. wanted Cole and Strasburg. Strasburg got as much as Rendon and Cole significantly more. Cole wanted to be a Yankee.
The Dodgers bid more for Rendon than the Angels. But Rendon chose family over the Dodgers offer.
Rendon went into that off-season with the highest WAR. It just didn’t work out, which is very very common with free agents.
BTW you can blame Moreno for a lot of stuff but I don’t think the rendon contract is one of them.
Everything looked good before he signed.
Rendon looked:
-durable (averaged 146 games his last 4 years in Washington)
-very good in all 3 categories of hitting (avg, obp, slg)
-great strikeout to walk rate
This is all signs of a player who could age great, Moreno could not have known he would first get constantly hurt and then lose motivation to play.
The angels have been a badly run org and Moreno deserves most of the blame but the contract imo was just bad luck
Perry Minasian has one bullet left.
And he’s aiming it straight at Detroit.
The Angels’ GM is staring down the barrel of a lost decade, a gutted farm, and a fanbase that’s seen enough. His final act? A desperate, all-in push for Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young winner with a 2.21 ERA and 241 Ks. The price? Prospects. The stakes? Everything.
This isn’t just a trade.
It’s a Hail Mary with heat.
It’s Minasian’s Last Stand.
Because if this doesn’t work if Skubal doesn’t anchor a playoff run there’s no next chapter. No redemption arc. Just another GM in the rearview mirror and another year of Trout wasted.
So load one in the chamber, Perry. Playing Russian roulette.
Detroit’s listening.
And the clock’s ticking.