Sources: Angels' Anthony Rendon to serve 4-game suspension
Los Angeles Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon will serve a four-game suspension for a public altercation with a fan in Oakland last week, videos of which circulated on social media, sources told ESPN on Monday.
Major League Baseball initially handed Rendon a five-game suspension on Monday, which Rendon threatened to appeal. A subsequent negotiated settlement between MLB and the MLB Players' Association reduced Rendon's suspension to four games that must be served immediately, sources said, beginning with the Angels' road game against the division-rival Seattle Mariners later Monday afternoon.
Rendon, who was also fined an undisclosed amount, grabbed the fan by the shirt as he was making his way out of the first-base dugout and into the tunnel that leads to the visitors' clubhouse at RingCentral Coliseum on Thursday night in the aftermath of the Angels' 2-1 Opening Day loss to the Oakland Athletics. Rendon accused the fan of calling him a "b----," then took a swipe that missed his head before walking away.
MLB has dealt with a handful of fan-related incidents involving players over the past several years, including a couple last season, when Tim Anderson was given a one-game suspension for flipping off a fan in April and Amir Garrett was docked three games for throwing a drink at a fan in August.
In August 2010, Nyjer Morgan received a seven-game suspension for throwing a ball into the stands. Six years earlier, in September 2004, Milton Bradley was suspended for the final five regular-season games for approaching a fan who had thrown a plastic bottle in his direction, and Frank Francisco received a 16-game suspension for throwing a chair that hit a fan.
Rendon, 32, is nearing the midway point of a seven-year, $245 million contract that has thus far been a massive disappointment. A litany of injuries -- to his left groin, left knee, left hamstring, right hip and right wrist -- limited Rendon to 105 of a possible 324 games from 2021 to 2022, during which he batted .235/.328/.381.
Rendon was a .290/.369/.490 hitter while spending his first six years with the Washington Nationals, during which he made an All-Star team, won two Silver Slugger Awards and helped lead the franchise to its first and only World Series title.
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