The Los Angeles Dodgers won 106 games during the 2019 MLB regular season and entered the playoffs as the favorite to win the National League pennant. But Dodgers fans experienced utter heartbreak after the team crumbled in the final innings of Game 5 of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals.
One of the players responsible for the heartbreak was Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon, who clubbed a game-tying homer off of Clayton Kershaw in the eighth inning and later hit a double to set up Howie Kendrick's grand slam in the tenth inning.
Rendon will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and Andy McCullough of The Athletic suggests that the Dodgers may attempt to sign the All-Star third baseman:
On the surface, Rendon would appear outside the price range of the Dodgers. Under Friedman’s leadership, the Dodgers have not given out a free-agent contract worth more than $93 million. The Nationals have already offered Rendon a seven-year deal worth between $210-215 million, with some money deferred, according to the Washington Post.
But two factors make possible a pursuit of Rendon: Members of the front office salivate over his ability, and there exists a perception in the sport that Rendon might be enticed to take the sort of short-term contract with record-breaking average annual value that Bryce Harper rejected from the Dodgers last winter.
Rendon should be a finalist for the NL MVP after slashing .319/.412/.598 with 34 homers and an MLB-best 126 RBIs. He will only be 30 next June, but he has also insisted that he does not want to play late into his 30s. With that in mind, the Dodgers could attempt to sign Rendon to a record AAV on a short-term contract.
Los Angeles third baseman Justin Turner told McCullough that he would be open to a position change, and the Dodgers should have some money coming off the books if they elect not to bring back the likes of Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
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