Rangers' fans gratitude on missing out on Anthony Rendon has never been higher

It feels that not long ago the Texas Rangers were ready to make Anthony Rendon the face of their franchise. Five years ago to be exact.

In 2019, Rendon was coming off one of the best years of his career, hitting .319/.412/.598/1.010 with a career-high in home runs (34), RBI's (126), doubles (44) and runs scored (117) and WAR (7.1) helping the Washington Nationals win the World Series.

Rendon was considered the top free agent of the offseason and a lot of times wanting to sign him, the Rangers included. In the end he decided to join Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in Anaheim, signing a 7-year, $245 million deal with the Angels.

However, five years later Rendon's contract is arguably one of the worst contracts in MLB history. Since his Angels debut during the shortened 2020 season Rendon has only played in a combined 257 games over the four seasons due to several injuries.

Now, his 2025 is delayed "long-term" as the Angels announced on Wednesday that Rendon needs hip surgery due to a injury suffered over the offseason.

Once in heavy pursuit of the third-baseman, the Rangers have no reason to look back and hang their heads on missing out on Rendon, given that all of their wildest dreams have come true (so far).

No Rendon eventually opened the door for Josh Jung

Jung was the Rangers' first round pick in 2019 out of Texas Tech where he was named the 2017 Big 12 Freshman of the Year, multiple time All-Big 12 First Team selections and the 2019 Big 12 Co-Player of the Year, alongside Baylor's Davis Wendzel.

In 2019, he made his professional debut hitting his first professional home run in his first at-bat and finished that year in High-A Hickory.

After missing the 2020 season due to the COIVD-19 pandemic, Jung then began suffering some setbacks. In 2021, he missed the first half of the season after undergoing surgery to repair stress fracture in his foot. Then, in 2022 Jung underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

Eventually Jung made his MLB debut on September 9, 2022 and appeared in 26 games that year, finishing the season with a .204/.235/.418/.654 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 102 plate appearances.

Jung won winning the 2023 American League Rookie of the Month in April and May. He later became the first rookie in Rangers franchise history to start in the MLB All-Star Game then later that year helped lead the team to their first World Series in franchise history.

Despite missing majority of 2024 due to another injury, Jung enters the 2025 season fully healthyagain and hopes to stay that way and make a direct impact on the success of this franchise moving forward.

The likelihood of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien signing in Texas would've been slim-to-none

Two offseasons after missing out on Rendon, the Rangers took over the winter headlines signing middle infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to long-term deals worth nearly a combined half a billion dollars.

People around baseball thought the team was crazy. The team finished the year 60-102, finishing last in the AL West by 35 games and for a bit the critics were right because the new look Rangers led by their two half a billion dollar stars only improved the win total by eight games the following year.

However, in the second year of their contracts they delivered massively as the key focal points of a completed rebuild and securing the 2023 World Series title defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games. Seager won the World Series MVP while Semien hit the series clinching dagger two-run home run in the top of the ninth of Game 5.

Let's go back in time to December 2019. If the Rangers had won the Rendon sweepstakes and offered him $245 million that would've been there big signing to led them into a rebuild. Which likely means no Seager and Semien, maybe one of them would've come to Texas but certainly not both.

All in all, you can say that despite the disappointment that was felt back when Rendon signed with a division-rival, it was for the better and the team's past success and future are prime examples of that.