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This week’s news that Anthony Rendon will no longer play for the Angels (or, in reality, anyone) was sad for anyone associated with the Nationals who was sorry to see his once-brilliant career come apart the way it did once he left D.C. for Anaheim.
While most everyone else in the baseball world will bemoan that the Angels wound up paying Rendon $245 million to play only 257 games while hitting only 22 homers with 125 RBIs – totals he surpassed in 2019 alone – everyone here still recognizes how great he was when healthy. And how the Nats would not have won the World Series without him.
It’s, of course, impossible not to make comparisons to Stephen Strasburg. Both were homegrown, first-round picks who became stars in Washington. Both rose to the occasion on the biggest stage. Both became free agents days after the World Series. Both wound up signing seven-year, $245 million contracts. Both never came close to living up to those deals, done in by career-ending injuries that forced them into early retirement and financial settlements with their clubs.
What’s also striking about the Rendon news, though, is the fact he becomes the latest member of that 2019 team to exit the playing stage.
That was admittedly an old roster, filled with veterans who had already enjoyed long and productive careers but were now united in their quest to win their first rings. But there were plenty of 20-something players on the team, too, including some of the best players in the sport. And only six years later, many of them have retired.
The only remaining active big leaguers from the 2019 World Series roster? Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Victor Robles, Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, Joe Ross, Tanner Rainey and Wander Suero. And at this moment, only Turner (Phillies), Soto (Mets) and Robles (Mariners) are guaranteed to be on major league rosters this season. Scherzer, Corbin and Ross are free agents, still seeking offers. Rainey (Tigers) and Suero (Athletics) have already signed minor league deals, hoping to make it back to The Show in 2026.
That means 17 players from the World Series roster have now retired: Matt Adams, Asdrúbal Cabrera, Sean Doolittle, Brian Dozier, Adam Eaton, Yan Gomes, Javy Guerra, Daniel Hudson, Howie Kendrick, Gerardo Parra, Rendon, Fernando Rodney, Aníbal Sánchez, Strasburg, Kurt Suzuki, Michael A. Taylor and Ryan Zimmerman.
Suzuki is now a big league manager (in Anaheim), with Eaton his first base coach. Doolittle and Parra have been members of the Nationals’ coaching staff. That’s wild to consider.
Who knows how much longer Rendon would have played, even if he had been able to stay healthy. He was never the kind of guy who figured to play into his 40s. His contract with the Angels would’ve been up at the end of this season, and at 36 there’s a good chance he would’ve decided to hang them up anyway.
It’s up to Turner, Soto and Robles – and perhaps a couple of the others still trying to play in the majors – to carry the torch of the greatest team in Nationals history. A team that played only six years ago, even if it’s starting to feel like a lifetime.
