The Los Angeles Angels had three transcendent players on their roster. From the 2020 season through 2023, the Angels wanted to pencil future Hall of Famer Mike Trout, now-future Hall of Famer Shohei Ohtani and World Series champion Anthony Rendon into their lineups as much as possible. Trout had previously won three American League MVPs and Ohtani was showing naysayers that he could, in fact, succeed as a two-way player in MLB by the time the Angels signed Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245 million contract to leave the reigning champs in the Washington Nationals.
Based on Rendon's body of work at that point, the Angels thought that they were adding a bona fide star to their batch of stars.