Los Angeles Angels 3B Anthony Rendon's season is officially over, as he is choosing to undergo surgery to repair a right hip impingement. The news comes as a sour cherry-on-top of what's been a disappointing season for both Rendon and the Angels, who are currently 53-54, and 12 games back of the Houston Astros for the AL West division lead. The announcement broke Wednesday evening, via the Angels PR:
The #Angels released the following statement today regarding INF Anthony Rendon:
“Anthony Rendon will undergo season ending surgery to repair a right hip impingement. Additional information will be provided as appropriate.”
— Angels PR (@LAAngelsPR) August 4, 2021
As he finishes the second year of a 7 year, $245,000,000 contract, Rendon will end up with a .240/.329.382 triple-slash and only 6 home runs across 58 games. He also will finish with an OPS+ of 92, making him a below league-average hitter on the year. The only constant was his reliable defense at the hot corner.
The Angels will just have to hope that Rendon's disappointing 2021 campaign can simply be chalked up to injuries and inconsistent time on the field. There's reason for optimism, however, as this season was the first time since 2016 that Rendon hit below .286, and he's never been an injury-prone player. Additionally, in his previous 8 seasons, Rendon finished top-11 in MVP voting 5 times, including a 2019 season in which he finished third in NL MVP voting, made the All-Star team, and won a Silver Slugger award.
2021 has certainly been a “what-if” season for the Angels. As Shohei Ohtani has set the world on fire with his Babe-Ruth-on-steroids exploits and Jared Walsh has broken out into an All-Star caliber player, the losses of Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon to injuries have robbed fans of what had the potential to be one of the most explosive offenses in the league.
Hopefully, the baseball gods will bless their fortunes upon Los Angeles in 2022 and give us all a chance to see Rendon and the Halos at full strength. Until then, we'll just have to sit back and enjoy the Ohtani show.
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