A Fascinating Story About the Angels' New Star Anthony Rendon

SI's Tom Verducci has a fascinating story of the Angels administering a stress test on their new star

Anthony Rendon is one cool cat. A guy they say has a slow heartbeat. Last year he hit .319 in the regular season, but .365 with runners in scoring position and .328 in the postseason. When he hit home runs in clinching wins in the NLCS and the World Series, both were off of Cy Young Award winners: Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. 

Pressure doesn't bother him, which is one reason why the Angels gave him a seven-year $245 Million dollar contract. Now, before that contract was finalized, Rendon proved that the slow heartbeat was not just a metaphor. 

As part of his physical, the Angels gave him a stress test. They put him on a treadmill, hooked him up to monitors and told him to start running. Well, the heart rate was not elevating, so they cranked up the treadmill. Still no increased heart rate. They inclined the treadmill. Still no increased heart rate. Now, they had Rendon running for what must have been about 20 minutes, cranking up the speed and incline until finally they elevated his heart rate. Everything was OK. As Rendon told me, it was one of his toughest workouts in a while. 

So the next time you see Anthony Rendon in the batter's box in a pressure situation. Just know that that slow heart rate, that's real.