The White Sox are shutting down star shortstop Tim Anderson for the season, acting manager Miguel Cairo informed reporters (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Anderson hasn’t played since August 9, when he suffered a tendon injury in his left middle finger that required surgical repair.
Chicago had held out hope for the former batting champion to make it back as recently as last week, but the team’s ongoing free fall changed the equation. The Sox were within a game and a half in the AL Central race as recently as September 10, but they’ve gone 4-10 since that point to end any hope they had of a playoff berth. A sweep at the hands of the Guardians last week sewed up the division for Cleveland. The White Sox are still mathematically alive in the Wild Card race, but they could be officially eliminated as soon as tomorrow.
As they’re now playing out the string, there’s little incentive for the White Sox to push Anderson back onto the field. Veteran Elvis Andrus, who signed for the stretch run a couple days after being released by the A’s in mid-August, will finish the year as the shortstop. Andrus is headed for free agency at season’s end, and it seems likely he’ll depart in search of a clearer path to playing time elsewhere this winter.
Anderson finishes the season with a .301/.339/.395 line across 351 plate appearances. That’s still above-average production, but it was the two-time All-Star’s least valuable campaign since 2018. After some offensive inconsistency early in his career, Anderson broke out as one of the game’s top shortstops with a .335/.357/.508 showing in 2019. He’s remained at that level the past few years, consistently hitting above .300 while rating as a solid defender and high-end baserunner.
The 2022 campaign is the final guaranteed year on the contract extension Anderson inked back in 2017. The Sox can keep him around for another two seasons via eminently affordable club options, though. They’re certain to bring him back for $12.5MM next year in lieu of a $1MM buyout, and they hold a $14MM option on his services for 2024.
Don’t sign him.
If they do sign him, does that include his mouth?
Sox should move him to second.
I agree, good call. They have money available & with the impending SS FA class this offseason (Correa, XB, Turner, Swanson) they have some really good potential options. I presume Anderson’s defensive performance would get better if he transitioned to 2B too.
Agreed. With the shift being banned next year also shortstops will be required to have more range, which Anderson lacks. They really need to do something about that 1B/DH logjam, too.
Very true; another great point.
I totally agree with you Clipper, I feel they’ll have a better chance of success if they move Anderson and get FA SS.
They have money available???
When did this happen? Grandal leaving should help cover arbitration raises and allow the signing of a 2nd C. If they keep Abreu (they shouldn’t), where are these additional funds coming from? The White Sox have been at max payroll all year..
They more screwed than I thought. Didn’t realize they were stuck with Grandal for another year.
The only contracts they have coming off the books are Abreu (19m) and Cueto (4.5m). They also have a bunch of arbitration raises, including first time through for Cease. They could certainly benefit from some more speed in the OF (which could be achieved by moving Sheets/Vaughn to 1B and letting Abreu go), but to get a major upgrade at 2B/SS to pair with Anderson would take convincing Reinsdorf to expand the payroll to beyond the luxury tax line.
I got roasted on another platform for this idea last off-season. I wanted the Six to sign Seager and move TA to 2nd due to his poor defensive range. Now look where we are at.
Grandal has the highest contract in club history. Seager received over four times Grandal’s contract.
You’re missing the fact that free agents get a choice as to where they play and no free agent wants to play for the White Sox. They may be willing to grossly over spend on relievers but they do not have that financial might to pay a guy like Seager to play for them….
Why would any free agent choose to play for the south siders? Oh come play in our terrible stadium in front of our terrible fan base for our terrible owners and incompetent PBO.
More thoughts from delusional, jealous Cubs fans. You should be answering the question of why no one wants to play for the Cubs. The one quality FA they’ve signed (ever) was Jon Lester. He only came there because no one else wanted him for the money he got from the Cubs.
Firing Hahn won’t change anything. Why don’t you people get it? Jerry Reinsdorf runs the team, and he runs it the same way he’s ran it since 1981. The Sox never spend money on good players. Ever. Until that changes, nothing else will.
The Sox are cheap. That is why no one they can never build a roster correctly, or improve teams close to contention. They’re missing a stud free agent bat in the lineup. Most teams would have signed a 5-tool Right Fielder or Infielder the last three offseasons. The Sox can’t do this because their majority owner is cheap ### and a creep (loves watching fans suffer).
Sign Andrus for 2B and Correa for SS. Trade Anderson for pitching.
They have Andrus.
He’s a FA at the end of the season. They’d need to sign him
Oh yeaaah.
If any team offers Andrus a starting job, he will sign. There won’t be a long line for his services.
It’s my fear the Twins will pick up Andrus to cover SS until Lewis is ready/healthy
If its a choice of starting for the White Sox, or being an injury fill in for the Twins, I don’t think it would be a difficult decision for him.
I meant for next season. Signing Andrus as the opening day SS
No free agent wants to play in the south side of Chicago….
I doubt that’s true. I think a lot of players would love to play in Chicago in general, but when you have to miser owners who throw around nickels like manhole covers on both sides of town now, they are not going to get paid if they sign here.
He can work on his artwork now, he has plenty of time
That’s good news for all of his side pieces. No new babies will be on the way.
Plenty of time to watch Donaldson rake on the teevee
Donaldson is going to be ‘raking’ on TV because of the team he is on, not because of him.
This team needs to tear down the front office from Williams, Hahn down to the manager and bring in people that aren’t emotional attached to this team. This team can hit with the best of them, but for some reason can not move runners over and can LOB like no other.
Indeed they do. Until they clean house/ hire some astute baseball ops personnel that have zero connection to WSox or the dysfunctional organizational ways of JR, sustained success will not occur. JR probably has to sell b/c doubtful he is changing in any substantive way.
Brain drain from any of Hou/Tampa/STL/Milw/Balt/Atl who know how to draft, develop and play sound baseball……and haven’t had the luxury of NY or Dodger top tier budgets every year.
As far as TA, if he so much as groans about a move off SS, trade him. They need a defensive ace there. If someone will take on half (roughly 9 mil) of Grandal’s final year salary-ship him off and acquire some low cost veteran C who is a good defender. Offense should come from other positions anyhow.
No serious contender would want Grandal anywhere near their roster. Which team would be willing to pay $9M/yr for a catcher, that can’t catch, oh yeah, but he can try to WALK.
@msq: News Flash: This team cannot ‘hit with the best of them’. They are vastly overrated- primarily due to the exaggerations of Stevie Stone. Yesterday Stone basically blamed the Sox inadequacies on the shorter preseason.
And here I thought all teams in MLB had the same preseason. Silly me.
With that attitude, he’s going to need his left middle finger at full strength.
Andrus is putting up similar numbers to Anderson in about half the amount of games since joining the White Sox so no reason to rush Anderson back anyway.
Andrus has definitely bought himself a new lease on life in MLB (for at least one year) amazing how playing meaningful Baseball brings out the best in a player
Headline should read white sox team to shut down for the of the season, retroactive to September 1st.
I am a season ticket holder who lost all hope early on. My fellow Sox fans roasted me, but the game when they led 8-2 , at home, with 2 outs in the 9th, and lost, ended the season for me. NO team that is expected to contend loses a game that bad in that manner. No excuses. Also, there is not one guy on the current roster that can be counted on to deliver in the clutch. How many times this year did they a runner at 3rd with less than 2 out and fail.
Tim Anderson is not a star.
Not according to Hawk Harrelson…
Quite literally the starting “All-Star” starting shortstop this year.
You may not like him him or think he’s overrated and I’m not here to argue that. But dude is a face of MLB, and most def a star.
@dogbone you can’t win games if half your lineup doesn’t play 100 games in a season. Anderson, Robert, Jimenez all missed 60+ games and so did Grandal and Moncada although they had terrible seasons. I just want a new voice in the dugout and someone to come in and trade off the Sheets, Burgers and find a someone to take Pollack so I can have a OF of Colas, Robert and Cespedes next year.
Boxer——at some point the injury excuse becomes wearisome and is quite honestly false. Anderson’ s time was filled in quite nicely by Andrus….and Robert and Eloy actually played a combined 50 games MORE this year than last when they won the division by 13 games. Grandal has played the same amount of games and Moncada’s lack of games highlights, take your pick, a lack of talent there or a lack of depth.
Granted, the Guardians have been the most healthy team—-the Twins, by far have been the most injured.
And if you listen to Steve Stone——there is a very vivid reason you only see offensive highlights of Colas…..
You are 100% though that they need to throw Sheets, Burger, add Eloy and Vaughn to the pile and either let (gulp) Abreu go elsewhere and put Vaughn at first —or pick the one of those players to keep (Vaughn?) and package the others in deals to get “base a’’ players”.
The White Sox lack depth… their highly touted farm system of a few years ago is a wasteland with no talent. They cannot make trades to improve the club nor does any free agent want to sign there.
The bright side is, as I’ve said before, the White Sox fan can enjoy watching Cease, Anderson, etc playing in the playoffs in the near future… it will be for other teams but they will be there.
Such a disappointing and disastrous season. Never believed they would win the World Series but there’s no excuse for not at least winning the division. But hey, as long as the guys had fun and looked good with all their gold chains and colorful shoes with matching gloves.
It’s very difficult being a fan of this team. The rebuilding years are tough but now this is the window of contention and they hover near .500 in a winnable central.
Time to sell the team!
Sorry. As they are unlikely to relocate, you’ll still get to watch them even if they do get a new owner.
I don’t want to see them relocate. I want to see someone bring some fire and a new approach.
The way they folded against the Astros in last year’s playoffs, the lack of heart in this year’s team is no surprise at all.
Poor Jackie
Keuchal”s $18 mil 2022 salary comes off the books but is mostly offset by Moncada”s contract increase to $17 mil for 2023 (and $25 mil in 2024…double ugly) and Grandal is in the final of year of his contract in 2023 at $18 mil. So the Sox have $35 mil in 2023 salary tied up in a couple of .200 BA hitters who can’t stay healthy. When you look at Moncada’s career numbers it screams 2nd baseman…..definitely not a power hitting 3rd baseman. So give Moncada 2nd base….actually more like the role that Leury Garciia filled this year. If Nolan Arenado opts out of the last 5 years of his Cardinals contract, give him $42 mil a year for the 5 years.
One only can hope that the Sox find a Sap GM that would take Moncada’s contract in hopes of making him a star.. The problem with that logic is that Hahn is usually the only Sap in the room.
For the Sox to be competitive next season I see some of what is below has to occur.
-Deal with Moncada at third and hope you can get a manager in town that will squeeze whatever potential out of him, same with Luis Robert at this point.
-Sign Andrus until Montgomery is ready at SS.
-Move Anderson.. not to 2nd or OF, but out of town. Let him get tons of preventable injuries somewhere else..I was a fan of his, but got tired of the holely glove and constant injuries (never mind the inability to drive runs in)
-Make Eloy a full time DH whether he ‘likes’ it or not.
-Say bye to Abreu (I think his numbers are fools gold at this point in his career and for all the stuff I heard about him being a leader on this team I saw a lot of give up and loafing by players on this club all season.. and where was he??)
-Make Vaughn full time 1st baseman, Sheets can be a sometime 1st, sometimes DH, rarely OF, and bench player.
-Bring up Colas for LF or RF: time to see this kid in the majors.
-Bring in a whole new health and conditioning staff.. Find Herm Schneider 2.0
-Find a pitching coach that knows how to get his pitchers to adapt and pitch against playoff contender teams.
-Make Martin the 5th starter and put Crochet back in the minors to stretch him out as a starter (or see if he can)
Then it just leaves you with 2nd base (one again) to fill, and a corner OF spot, until Cespedes can show he can be an everyday OF as well.
I, like others, got roasted at the beginning of the season after an awful off season where nothing was really done to improve this team’s gaping holes.
What did I hear? “The Sox are going to run away with the division” (even though they had shown they could not hit any Cleveland pitching when they were healthy last season-Cleveland of the Sox) Then when they were playing godawful baseball at the beginning of the season I heard “Its just this or that injury, and once they are healthy they will will be in first place by the AS break.”.
I notice those folks are not saying much if anything, and will likely not admit they were spouting off like that all season… I just hope they learned a valuable lesson about this White Sox team: There is a huge level of incompetence that stretches from the owner down to the conditioning staff on this team (never mind the apparent idea of several players taking the year off, but still collecting their checks). I’m not sure any little changes fix this. The Sox will need to have a lucky sequence of moves and FA signings like before and during 05, but the problem is it seems the White Sox org rely on this type of management EVERY season….
Hopefully he comes in next year ready to play defense from day one and with less attitude because it’s getting old. Just have fun, smile and play solid ball. You are making 12 Mil in 2023 and not the best at literally, anything. Get your REAL game on, bro. I know it’s in there. Go Sox!