Report: Nats ownership, Boras met to discuss Rendon extension

The suddenly hot Washington Nationals have reportedly renewed talks with Scott Boras regarding a contract extension for Anthony Rendon.

Boras was seen at Nationals Park on Saturday and reportedly had a meeting with principal owner Ted Lerner to discuss an extension for Rendon, sources told Mark Zuckerman of MASN.

The Nationals have had interest in re-signing their star third baseman over the past few months. However, Washington's struggles to start the season led to conjecture about whether the team would shop Rendon prior to the deadline.

That being said, the club has quickly put themselves back into contention, winning nine of their last 11 games to propel themselves into a dogfight for second place in the NL East with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Rendon, 29, became a first-time All-Star this year, but will miss the Midsummer Classic in order to rest his left quad and hamstring. The third baseman owns a .304/.389/.615 slash line with 20 home runs over 73 games this year. Since the beginning of 2014, only Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Josh Donaldson, Jose Altuve, Buster Posey, and Christian Yelich - all of whom have won MVPs - have been worth more WAR than Rendon, according to FanGraphs.

Historically, Boras' clients have preferred to hit the open market. However, the Nationals' brass recently brokered a seven-year, $175-million deal with Boras for Stephen Strasburg in 2016 prior to his free agency.

If Rendon and the Nationals do strike a deal, it would be yet another member of the 2019-20 free-agent class off the market. Nolan Arenado, Chris Sale, Paul Goldschmidt, Xander Bogaerts, Justin Verlander, and Khris Davis - among others - were slated to hit the open market this winter before agreeing to new deals.