Over the last few years, Los Angeles Angels star Anthony Rendon, who signed a seven-year, $245 million deal before the 2020 campaign, has been criticized for a number of reasons.
His performance collapsed after putting ink to paper on that deal, his attitude hasn’t always been positive towards the game and media, and he has expressed overall disinterest in baseball on more than one occasion.
However, if people are quick to point out the bad, they need to the same when he does something right.
And lately, he is doing the job that his manager Ron Washington assigned to him.
“What’s the goal of a leadoff man? Get on base. Last 8 games Anthony Rendon has a .421 OBP. His OBP is .293 on the season, including the 0-21 start. He’s a different player today than he was 5 years ago. But Angels have found a role for him at leadoff and he’s performing,” Angels broadcaster Trent Rush tweeted.
What’s the goal of a leadoff man? Get on base. Last 8 games Anthony Rendon has a .421 OBP.
His OBP is .293 on the season, including the 0-21 start.
He’s a different player today than he was 5 years ago. But Angels have found a role for him at leadoff and he’s performing.
The sample is extremely small, but Rendon is at least doing his job as a leadoff hitter: getting on base and giving the run-producers in the lineup, namely Mike Trout and Taylor Ward, a chance to inflict some damage.
Rendon, who once averaged over 20 homers per season and peaked at 34 in 2019, has seemingly lost his power.
He has two doubles and no homers in 13 games this year.
For the season as a whole, he is slashing .231/.293/.269 with a .562 OPS.
That’s not good, but if we count his last eight games, he is at .364/.421/.424 with a .845 OPS.
It might be the start of something sustained, at long last.