Washington Nationals: Top 10 homegrown players in team history
By Drew Douglas
4. Anthony Rendon
After being drafted sixth overall in the 2011 draft, Anthony Rendon quickly proved why he was worth the first round pick. In his first full season in the majors, 2014, he batted .287 with 21 homers and 39 doubles.
Rendon has not looked back from there, owning a career slash line of .280/.358/.454 to go with his 78 homers and 157 doubles. While he does have good home run power, he has better gap-to-gap power, which enables him to excel at hitting doubles, earning him the nickname, “Tony Two Bags”.
In addition to his offensive prowess, Rendon is also a gold glove-caliber defender at third base. He has yet to win a Gold Glove Award, due to Nolan Arenado‘s defensive wizardry, but Rendon consistently places near the top of the league in defensive metrics.
Finally, sabermetrics love Rendon. In 2017, the best season of his career so far, he had a league-leading WAR of 6.9, according to FanGraphs. While this was a terrific season, he may still be improving. He is still just 27 years old, and likely has not yet reached his peak.
Rendon can truly do it all on a baseball field, and is a fan favorite, which leads to him being the fourth-best homegrown player in team history.