Baseball

Anthony Rendon signs seven-year deal with Los Angeles Angels

By Joshua Doering Dec 12, 2019
Former Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Newly-crowned World Series champion Anthony Rendon is on his way to Los Angeles to team up with Mike Trout, and form a fearsome one-two punch in the middle of the Angels lineup. The 29-year-old third baseman agreed to a seven-year, $245 million deal with the Angels late Wednesday night, sources told ESPN.

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Rendon hit a career-high .319 with 44 doubles and 34 home runs for the Nationals in 2019, and his 126 RBIs led all of Major League Baseball. He was named an All-Star for the first time, and then hit .328 in the postseason, highlighted by two home runs and eight RBIs in the World Series. Rendon’s solo shot in the top of the seventh inning of Game 7 cut the Nationals’ deficit to one and set the stage for Howie Kendricks’ two-run home run later that inning that gave Washington a 3-2 lead.

Entering the offseason as a free agent, Rendon trusted God to guide his steps moving forward.

“You want to plan for the future,” he told the Washington Post in 2018, knowing free agency was looming. “But I’ve come to learn your plans don’t always come to fruition. Obviously, with my faith, too, I don’t want to seem like it’s all about me, me, me. It takes away from what I do for Him, for the Lord.”

Born and raised in Houston, Rendon was drafted by Washington out of Houston’s Rice University as the No. 6 overall pick in the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft. As he’s joined the MLB elite, Rendon has strived to keep his relationship with God at the forefront. In 2017, he stepped up to raise money for his hometown following Hurricane Harvey, saying, “It is truly amazing watching the body of Christ come alive.”

Last year, Rendon expressed one of his main goals in life when speaking with Houston-based pastor Gregg Matte.

“I want to be known as a Christian baseball player and I’m still trying to grow into that,” Rendon said. “But in the end, I want to be more Christian than baseball player … If I just try to stay in the Word and try to surround myself with good people and have good community, I think that will just guide me on that path.”

With the Angels, Rendon’s big bat will join that of Trout, the reigning American League MVP who finished second in the AL last season with 45 home runs. Trout has been awarded AL MVP in three of the past six seasons, but the Angels have missed the playoffs each of the past five seasons.

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— Nationals slugger Anthony Rendon’s 5 RBIs help force World Series Game 7
— Nationals’ Anthony Rendon wants to be ‘more Christian than baseball player’
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