Angels activate Anthony Rendon to serve suspension, play final 3 games

ANAHEIM — It’s now official: Anthony Rendon’s “season-ending surgery” wasn’t season-ending after all.

Rendon, who had wrist surgery in June, was able to pass the final test to be activated on Wednesday. Rendon began serving a five-game suspension for his part in the fight with the Seattle Mariners in June, which will leave him three games to play next week in Oakland.

After losing the end of his season because of hip surgery in 2021, Rendon said his goal all along was to make it back for the end of this season, to have “peace of mind” entering a winter without rehab.

“That was always my expectation,” Rendon said. “This is two years in a row now. Whether it was going to happen or not, I was going to push myself to try to come back this year. If it worked, it worked. If it didn’t, that was fine. I was OK with that. Going into the offseason I didn’t want to leave anything behind.”

By coming back this year, Rendon also takes care of the suspension now, instead of serving it in the first five games of the 2023 season.

Rendon, who is finishing the third year of a seven-year, $245 million contract, insisted that serving the suspension wasn’t the primary motivation to return.

Rendon started doing fielding drills in August his baseball activity gradually increased, making it obvious that he was trying to come back. He faced some of the Angels’ minor-league pitchers in workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday, the final hurdle to clear before the Angels could activate him.

Rendon can continue to work out and face live pitching in workouts during his suspension, further preparing him for real competition on Monday.

“It’s really a credit to him,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “You hear season-ending, guys would shut it down. Anthony’s been here, been present every day with his teammates, which is huge. We’ve had a lot of young guys come in and out of here and he’s been a mentor to them. I can’t think of any guy who would be much better than that. World Series champion. The things he’s done in this game. The knowledge he has. It’s a credit to him and the work he’s put in behind the scenes to get to this point.”

The Angels needed to clear spots on the 40- and 28-man rosters for Rendon, who had been on the 60-day injured list, so they designated infielder Mike Ford for assignment. The Angels will play with just 27 active players during the five-game suspension.

Ford had hit .231 with a .667 OPS in 28 games with the Angels, playing first base almost every day. Now, the Angels will use Matt Thaiss and Matt Duffy at first for the final eight games of the season.

PROPS FOR SOTO

Livan Soto, 22, has impressed Nevin in his first 10 major league games, hitting .379 with a 1.027 OPS. But it was one of his outs that Nevin talked about when describing Soto’s work at the plate.

On Tuesday night, the left-handed-hitting Soto was facing Oakland left-hander A.J. Puk. Lefties were hitting .161 against Puk. Soto got a slider off the plate and reached out and put a bat on it, flaring it into right field. A’s second baseman Tony Kemp made a diving catch.

“That’s probably the toughest left-on-left at-bat going in the major leagues,” Nevin said. “I know he didn’t hit it hard, but the fact is he stayed in there and took a good swing at a good pitch. It shows me that he’s fearless. When it comes to those moments, that’s something you like to see in a young player.”

NOTES

Mike Trout will wear a microphone throughout the Bally Sports West broadcast of the Angels’ game on Thursday, which will be Shohei Ohtani’s final start of the season at home. …

Infielder David Fletcher (bruised hand) faced live pitching in a workout before the game. Nevin said Fletcher is “real close” to being activated. “I’d imagine we’d see him here very soon.” …

Major League Baseball made a scoring change from the Angels’ Sept. 20 game at Texas, charging left fielder Jo Adell with an error and removing one earned run from Patrick Sandoval’s line. Corey Seager hit a double down the left field line and Adell misplayed it. Originally the scorer ruled there was no error because, in his opinion, Marcus Semien would have scored from first even without the misplay. …

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe became the 65th player to appear in a game for the Angels this season, setting a new franchise record.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP Shohei Ohtani, 14-8, 2.47) vs. A’s (LHP Cole Irvin, 9-12, 4.11), Thursday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM