White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson has hired Klutch Sports for representation, according to Robert Murray. Anderson, who’s celebrating his 27th birthday today, is now part of an agency that also counts the likes of Marcus Stroman, Keston Hiura and Kevin Gausman as clients. MLBTR has made note of his switch in our database.
It may be at least a couple years before Anderson’s new agency negotiates a deal for its latest client. After all, the White Sox could control Anderson for another half-decade. Shortly before the 2017 campaign, they signed Anderson to a six-year, $25MM guarantee with a $12.5MM club option for 2023 and a $14MM team option for the 2024 season.
The extension has worked out well for Chicago, which landed Anderson when it drafted him 17th overall in 2013. Anderson was a 2.0-fWAR player in two of his first three years from 2016-18, but he found another gear a season ago. Despite walking in a paltry 2.9 percent of plate appearances, Anderson slashed .335/.357/.508 (130 wRC+) with 18 home runs, 17 stolen bases and a personal-best 3.5 fWAR over 518 PA en route to an American League batting title.
hope his new agent gave him a nice present
Like what? He is overrated
You need to stay the Hell out of White Sox business, Mr. not low enough talker.
@lowtalker1
TA’s so “overrated” by so many, is he really even overrated anymore?
I get it, he’s in line for a regression in ’21 (sorry, I can’t count anyone’s stats in ’20, assuming COVID-19 doesn’t kill the season). I don’t know anyone on the planet who doesn’t think that (besides TA himself).
It amazes me that so many act like TA was hanging on to his job by a string before ’19. There were far worse SS than him in ’17 and ’18.
Improved his hitting, tears up pitching on 100-loss teams and is still an errors machine. Overrated is the proper term.
@wild bill tetley
First, you might to eliminate “Improved his hitting” as part of your criteria for TA being overrated. If that’s the case, hopefully every Sox hitter will be overrated over the next several years. And you realize Minny was a 100-win team, not a 100-loss team (1.310 OPS in 8 games).
If you feel he’s overrated, great, that’s your opinion. I don’t feel he’s overrated, then again, I don’t compare him to the best SS in the game or treat him as an All-Star. To me, he’s made drastic improvements. Sure, he has weaknesses in his game (such as low BB and high E), but who doesn’t. Again, I also think he will regress in ’21, but not by a lot (nowhere even close to ’17 and ’18).
That all being said, I’d still take him over several SS in the game today. He’s far from the best, but even further from the worst. His main focus should be to clean up the defense. He could stand to take a few more BB, but I’d take a hit over a BB any day of the week. But if he cleans up the defense considerably, he will be fine. I’m happy with him on the team.
It’s a lot easier to notice this stuff on Twitter:
…a huge percent of the most vocal “Tim Anderson is overrated” crowd are also “Blue Lives Matter” and “Covid is a liberal hoax” people.
I just block / ignore them.
TA7 is a Chicago treasure as far as I’m concerned. He does great charity work off the field. He is the ONLY White Sox player who lives full time on the south side, and he did that because he wanted to really connect with the team and fans.
As a 2 WAR short stop, he was for sure playing under his potential. We knew that.
As a 3-WAR SS, yeah he isn’t Machado or Story or Bergman or Correa or Lindor or whatever— but 3 WAR players at the skill positions are still crazy valuable.
And, while Timmy is obviously going to have 20-40 points of regression in his BABIP, he is also probably going to be healthy the whole year (last year is his first and only real injury).
Which means he is likely to be worth >3WAR again in 2021 because he will get another month of playing time over his 2019 season.
Unclear on the other agency change in Tim Anderson’s life but rumor is that he realized considerable savings by bundling his home and auto insurance with a different carrier !!
TA7
Though I can’t take the stats and results of the ’20 season seriously, I am happy they’re playing some sort of season. Yes, it’s for selfish reasons for the Sox. Even if they played the full 162 games, the Sox aren’t quite ready to contend this year. Now guys like Robert, Madrigal, Kopech, etc. can get needed experience without a lot of pressure to succeed this year.
I’d like the Sox to go at least .500 (preferably over .500), but if they don’t, no big deal. Use this season to set the table for next year (and beyond).
I’m curious who ends up on their taxi-squad. I’d have to think Vaughn is on it, though this 60 game season kills any remote chance he had at making it to Chicago this season. I’m curious if Crochet or Kelley (if they do sign him) end up on the taxi-squad also.
Not that being on the taxi-squad is a huge deal, but depending on the extent of what the players do on the taxi-squad, it might help a little with their development. I’m not expecting a lot of development, but at least it’s more than them sitting on the couch waiting for the season to end.
I like Anderson, mainly because he puts the ball in play and is a good baserunner. In today’s game that is rare, but still useful.
I would take TA over 80% of the starting Shortstops. His defense needs improvement but realistically he gets to many ground balls others can’t. His enthusiasm is extremely contagious.
I know that the last thing we really need to to spend our off season money acquiring another right handed starter.
But oh man do I want to sign Marcus Stroman to the White Sox!
He would add such a dynamic presence to our rotation. He would presumably push Cease, Lopez, or Rodón to the bullpen in 2021. And he throws such a great sinker that he could be an ideal pitcher for our ballpark.
Also, just from a marketing standpoint, can you imagine the White Sox is we signed Stroman AND Mookie Betts (or George Springer or Michael Brantley)?!
Pitching and RF are our two biggest holes, so it’s not a crazy proposition.
TA7, Mookie Betts, George Springer, Michael Brantley, and Marcus Stroman are 5 of the 10 best African American players in baseball right now. Put 3 of them on the “Good Guys Wear Black” South Side Sox and you’ve got a whole new generation of Sox fans across the country.
(I wouldn’t be opposed to re-acquiring Semien either this off season, if Madrigal turns out to be a dud at 2nd base. Or we could acquire him instead of Betts/Springer, and Anderson could convert to OF where his elite speed and arm would both play well)
Add on top of that, Los Sox have the most exciting collection of young Latin American talent outside of the NL East… and the Sox become not just one of the best teams in baseball but arguably the MOST marketable team not named the Yankees or Dodgers.
—-
More realistically if we are spending money on a pitcher it should be Quintana or Paxton or some other lefty.
And most realistically of all, Jerry isn’t going to open his checkbook for any of these star players. But I can dream.