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TEMPE, Ariz. — Anthony Rendon was recently going through his old emails because he needed to delete some to free up storage space.
That’s when he found a note he sent to himself in 2014, right after his rookie season. That note was a list of pros and cons for continuing in the game. Something he wrote when he was barely 24 years old.
Not much has changed. What’s on the pros and cons list certainly has, but Rendon’s contemplation of retirement has remained constant.
Speaking to reporters Monday after reporting to Angels camp, he made one thing very clear.
“It’s never been a priority for me,” Rendon said of the game. “This is a job. I do this for a living. “My faith, my family come first before this job.”
When asked if it was a priority, Rendón joked: “Oh, it sure is a priority. Because it’s my job.
“I’m here, right?”
Rendon, 33, has played in just 200 of a possible 546 games during his tenure with the Angels. He has not appeared in more than 58 games in a season after suffering season-ending injuries midway through each of the last three years.
He signed a seven-year, $245 million contract before the 2020 season. And his contract is still projected to generate more than $115 million over the next three seasons. That leaves the Angels in the unenviable position of having to work with a player who isn’t clear how much he wants to play for the Angels.
When asked if he wanted to be here, Rendón responded literally.
“I don’t want to talk to you at 7 in the morning or whatever time it is,” Rendón said.
When the next question was about his desire to play for the Angels, Rendon became frustrated.
“I have answered your question,” he said. “Then why do you keep bothering me?”
This is nothing new for Rendón, who is quite sarcastic and rarely speaks to the media. As a result, his responses on Monday can be taken with a small grain of salt.
He declined to say how many games he wants to play, but said he will come into the spring with a plan to try to shake off his injury problems. He had a relatively normal offseason after making a full recovery in late November.
“Yes, we did (we came up with a plan),” Rendon said. “I think we’re going to incorporate that in the first few weeks of spring. “I think the first few weeks will be a sign of whether this is working or not.”
“The last few years I have been setting expectations and setting goals. I don’t know if I’ve been cursing myself or not. I’m literally trying to take it one day at a time. If I can survive one more day, I’m happy. And then we’ll see where we are at the end of the year.”
In the end, due to his controversial comments about priorities, Rendón was clear that he wants to be healthy and contribute. He even said that he sees himself as a team leader, a guy who has been there and done that.
But he also acknowledges that he has a certain perception among fans for his lack of on-field production combined with his public comments. Last season, for example, he injured his shin in July, declined interviews for two months and then claimed that Angels doctors misdiagnosed a broken tibia as just a bruise. That happened months after being suspended for Grabbing an Oakland Athletics fan in the stands after the first game of the season.
He said, however, that people’s perspectives on him are not worth worrying about.
“They don’t know me,” Rendón said. “There they only know the surface. They are fans, right? They may know that I am six feet tall and weigh 190 pounds, but they don’t know who I am as an individual.
“Barry Bonds is possibly the greatest player to ever play the game and people still hate him. You can’t make everyone happy. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I don’t want to have surgery. Do you think I like going under the knife and being in pain most of the time? I can’t pick up my children. I can not walk. Do you think I enjoy that? I do not want to do that.”
Required reading
(Photo: Sam Hodde/Getty Images)