Today marks the four-year anniversary of the White Sox locking up their franchise shortstop. On March 21, 2017, the South Siders agreed to a six-year extension that guaranteed Tim Anderson $25MM. Via a pair of club options, the deal pushed Chicago’s club control over Anderson to the end of the 2024 season.
It was easy to see the appeal for the White Sox in betting on Anderson long-term. He was a former first-round pick and top 100 prospect, so one could envision him as a core piece of the future. Anderson had also held his own as a 23-year-old the year prior. The young shortstop made his MLB debut in June 2016 and hit a decent .283/.306/.432 over 431 plate appearances down the stretch.
There’s also the reality that early-career extensions tend to carry ample upside with little downside for teams. With the MLB salary structure designed to underpay players early in their careers, extensions for those players often tack on extra years of team control at rates well below what the player would’ve made in free agency if they perform at a high level. Meanwhile, the figures are typically low enough the team can paper over the deal if the player busts.
Still, this contract represented something of a show of faith on the White Sox’s part. Anderson had yet to accrue a full year of MLB service, so he would’ve been controllable through 2022 regardless. His strikeout and walk rates had been well worse than the league average in 2016, so a wait-and-see approach would’ve been reasonable, particularly with the organization embarking on a rebuild. Instead, Chicago placed a bet on Anderson’s long-term development. As Jeff Todd examined for MLBTR, the guarantee set a new high-water mark at that time for a player with less than one year of major league service.
The White Sox are now in position to be handsomely rewarded for that decision. After making the playoffs in 2020, Chicago looks well-positioned to continue to contend over the next few seasons. Anderson is a central reason for that. He has hit a stellar .331/.357/.514 (133 wRC+) over the past two seasons, finishing seventh in American League MVP voting in 2020.
While he has never drawn many walks, Anderson has improved in virtually every other regard since his rookie season. He’s cut his strikeout rate in recent years while hitting for more power and reliably posting high batting averages on balls in play. Anderson will play out the next two seasons on respective guaranteed salaries of $7.25MM and $9.5MM. Barring an unexpected drop in performance or injury, the White Sox should have little hesitancy excising the 2023-24 options (valued at $12.5MM and $14MM, respectively) and keeping Anderson in Chicago for the first half of this decade.
Kind of a steal. Doesn’t really matter since it doesn’t go into his FA
The two option years do. So the Sox get those years cheap without having to commit when the contract was signed.
I thought this extension was really odd at the time, but it’s paid off.
This was a solid deal made by Rick Hahn and his team.
They called Anderson up when he was ready, let him prove himself on the field, then honored him with an extension. It also set a precedent.
What the team has done ever since with prospects – signing extensions before they ever step foot on the field, and holding service time as a weapon to get them to do so – has been both unfair and shortsighted, as they are not getting the on-field evaluation to determine whether or not a player deserves an extension.
I’m pleased they didn’t do this with Madrigal, who has a very difficult skillset to evaluate and quantify, and hope they don’t do the same with Vaughn, who unlike Robert, offers little value outside of his bat.
To be fair, that precedent was set well before the Anderson extension. Quintana, eaton, and sale stand out as pre arbitration extensions that were extremely beneficial to the team
None of those contract extensions happened as early as the Tim Anderson deal. The only one that also took some heat from the fanbase was the Adam Eaton extension. All worked out to the White Sox advantage as will the even earlier extensions given to Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert, to say nothing of the ones issued to Yoan Moncada and Aaron Bummer. Hopefully Andrew Vaughn will be next up along with Lucas Giolito and Nick Madrigal.
Lock up the entire young core to pair with the FA deals already issued to Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel and Liam Hendriks! By next offseason White Sox fans will have a better idea regarding future expenditures for their starting rotation and their core right-fielder.
One year of service time vs two isn’t a precedent setting difference. My only point was that the white Sox have a long history of attempting to lock up their core before arbitration starts and there are several examples. Hence, the precedent existed long before Anderson signed his deal.
Most Sox fans liked the Eaton extension. I know I did. It looked like an even better bargain when you compared it to the Jason Heyward contract.
Eaton extension was a good one. Eaton got into it Ventura after a HBP one game. Big fight after that. Sale right in the middle of it throwing punches. Both Eaton and Sale won World Championships since Sox traded them.
I was also on board with the Adam Eaton contract extension as well but that is coming from a fan who tends to be optimistic and trusting of his team and generally gives people the benefit of the doubt. There were more than a few White Sox fans who questioned the wisdom of the Eaton extension back in March of 2015.
You might recall that Eaton had some question marks regarding his defense, base running and his ability to stay healthy. His baseball IQ was challenged after repeated encounters with outfield walls and his inability to amass stolen base with any semblance of efficiency despite possessing plus speed. Many of those same concerns followed him to Washington and emerged again when the White Sox re-signed him as a FA this past offseason. ‘Spanky’ also came to the White Sox from the Diamondbacks with some clubhouse baggage that reinforced itself in early 2016 with the Adam/Drake LaRoche fiasco.
The Arizona clubhouse baggage you speak of came as a result of Eaton’s enthusiasm and aggressive style for wanting to inspire his Arizona teammates to want to do more to win and his teammates got tired of it. They didn’t appreciate his personality but that isn’t baggage. And Eaton stuck up for LaRoche and his son. That wasn’t baggage either. I wouldn’t have wanted Drake on the field all the time either, among other things. Sox players complained about LaRoche, including Jimmy Rollins. Kenny came to the clubhouse and told the team some lies and Sale called him out on it, called Williams a liar and told him to get out of the clubhouse and don’t come back and had to be restrained. Eaton stuck up for LaRoche, he threw him a bone publicly. That’s not baggage. And that marked the conception of the rebuild. It was in all the papers. Multiple versions appeared as to what happened. My source told me the story I just told you. Time for Sunday spaghetti and meatballs.
However you want to categorize it, Eaton came to the White Sox from the Diamondbacks with some clubhouse issues. Whether he was a “cancer” or just a brash rookie is a matter of conjecture. Eaton had a few personality issues that continued with the White Sox that included some teammates, notably Todd Frazier, front office people like Kenny Williams and even many members of the local media for whatever that is worth.
I was a big fan of Eaton the first time around and even suggested in some comment sections that he might wind up as the White Sox primary 2021 RF before he became an official FA, even before the Nationals declined his 2021 team option. I also recall taking a lot of heat from White Sox fans who thought I was off base and that they would spring for someone like George Springer.
Perhaps I knew better than to expect a high ticket signing to fill RF this offseason. I also reasoned that Eaton’s skill set as a high contact lefty bat with some pop and speed might be a good fit in the White Sox lineup this year, to say nothing of his experience and effort in helping the Nationals win a championship in 2019.
Williams is a pompous ass and gets along with no one but himself and Jerry, and Todd Frazier was involved in the LaRoche thing and spread crap around that wasn’t true. But it must be Eaton who is to blame due to his personality issues. The man hit and walked and scored runs and played his ass off trying to win. More of that please and thank you.
‘Unfair and shortsighted’ to whom? Both parties are taking a risk.. A player could get signed to this extension and bust out or be out due to injuries…A player could be gangbusters, but be under control for a couple more seasons (and still make pretty good money doing so). Its not like the Sox were holding a gun to Eloy tell him we will pay you 10 dollars to play for us. Millions of dollars are still millions of dollars. I think it is also safe to say some players do not care about squeezing every last dime out of an org. Guys like Eloy care more about taking care of their family than trying to satiate an ego.
Unless they sign Madrigal for a brand new, crisp one hundred dollar bill, there’s no incentive to since he doesn’t hit any homers.
Yes. They also should consider kicking Nellie Fox out of the Hall of Fame because he only hit 35 HR’s over 19 seasons and 2367 games and 10351 PA’s. lol
Some White Sox fans and many of the young nerds crack me up!
Nellie Fox hit doubles and triples on a regular basis.
Madrigal had the lowest OPS of any player to hit 340 in the history of the game, because he doesn’t walk, and hit three extra base hits.
It’s honestly an insult to Nellie Fox at this point to compare Madrigal to him. Madrigal needs to show he can at least get slugging from doubles and triples. Otherwise, I don’t know what his value really is, at least in terms of a long-term contract.
WTF! In the history of the game based on Nick Madrigal’s 29 contests and 109 PA’s while playing with an inured left shoulder in all by 4 of them. Get a freaking life and stop with the ludicrous comps.
Btw: Despite all of the “doubles and triples” Nellie Fox still wound up with a .363 career SLG and enshrinement in Cooperstown. Some still question that selection, no doubt nerds like you who wouldn’t appreciate a real ball player when they see one.
Whatever numbers Madrigal winds up with in his MLB career I remain confident that he will match or exceed the .288/.348/.363 career slash line that Fox posted, to say nothing of the 35 HR’s and 76 SB’s (80 CS!) that Fox compiled in his long HOF career. Both Fox and Madrigal have similar skill sets which include the ability to hit with elite contact and field 2B at a Gold Glove level. Both also have achieved their success in baseball despite their diminutive size with Fox carrying that through for 19 seasons at the games highest level. It remains to be seen what Madrigal will accomplish in MLB but he has plenty going for him based on his amatuer and professional career to this point including superior athleticism to ‘Little Nel’.
Perhaps when all is said and done, Madrigal will resemble a more contemporary 2B who just retired in Dustin Pedroia. Each came out of the Pac-12 conference with impressive baseball resumes and with some concerns regarding their small size and ability to generate any significant power at the games highest level, not that exit velocity, launch angle and wRC+ are essential ingredients to be a successful MLB player. There a plenty of All-Star and even HOF players in the history of this great game that would have failed miserably based merely on some favored analytical tools.
You keep repeating Madrigal is an elite Gold Glove caliber fielder. And he may get there some day but right now he stinks in the field. Okay I really got To go before dinner gets cold.
Let me be clear.
I too think home runs are overrated. If someone has a decent slugging percentage generated off of doubles and triples, that’s great. And I do like Nellie Fox.
But I stand by my criticism of Madrigal, because the concerns about his power are not new. He may be the same size as Pedroia and Jimmy Rollins, but he is not built, and he has a very flat swing that generates line drives but not a lot of velocity. The injury may have played a role, but he simply isn’t going to develop power the same way as other players. He is much closer in that sense to Aaron Miles or Juan Pierre than thows two players.
The question is, can he position the ball in a manner that allows him to hit more doubles and triples. That is still debatable, and unlike Pierre, he doesn’t have the speed to stretch weaker hits.
That said, if he can somehow keep the average and generate more OPS via walks, the power won’t matter, because he will always be on base. Frankly,seeking out an absurdly high OBP is what he should be looking toward more than worrying about power. He is OBP is upward of 400, no one will care if his slugging isn’t impressive.
I like Madigal. I was referring to his lack of power keeping his arb salaries low. I’m also not sure how someone that responds to my comment with talk about “kicking Nellie Fox out of the Hall of Fame” and his stat line could be calling someone else a nerd with a straight face, but you do you.
What is unfair is the system and structure in place for young players…. Hahn uses the service time manipulation and rookie contract system as leverage for deals that are beneficial to both player and team… as a result, the White Sox as an organization are building a brand and reputation that international players want to be a part of because they do right by the talent when other teams don’t…. Considering the pedigree and minor league production of Robert, Jimenez, and Moncada, it is hard for me to view those moves as shortsighted… I would agree that extensions for Madrigal and Vaughn at this point are very premature and unnecessary.
I recall the White Sox taking some heat on this pro-active contract extension including from much of their own fan base. It wasn’t just based on his impatience at the plate either. Tim Anderson also had issues on defense and there were serious concerns about whether he would stay at shortstop over the course of this deal.
Anderson still shows some defensive inconsistency at SS. He often makes outstanding plays on balls many other less athletic shortstops wouldn’t even reach. TA continues to make errors on some routine plays. In many ways he reminds me of former Cubs SS Shawon Dunston who was also a gifted athletic prospect when the northsiders drafted him in the first round of the 1982 MLB June Amateur Draft. Like Anderson, Dunston also was an impatient hitter who had some power and could steal bases.
All that said, I was on board with the Anderson extension. He has exceeded all expectations on offense and in my opinion will be a perennial contender for the AL Batting Title along with being a regular 20/20 force with his HR’s and SB’s. If TA can ever go through a full season without spending time on the IL he might also be a 30/30 candidate, especially leading off where he can reach or exceed 700 PA’s over a full 162-game schedule. His consistency on defense is still a concern at SS although added experience and playing with a steady Gold Glove caliber defender at 2B in Nick Madrigal over at least the next 4 seasons just might help settle him down.
All of this on top of the swagger he adds to the White Sox makes Anderson one of MLB’s greatest bargains. He is one of the team’s many franchise faces, a vocal team leader and strong clubhouse presence. TA is also yet another White Sox player who wants to remain with the organization for the duration of his career. He loves Chicago and calls it his home throughout the year, something few players do and especially those who were born and raised in a sunbelt state. He and his wife are also hugely involved in the community with their charity work.
To summarize, you couldn’t ask for a better player representing the White Sox than Anderson, not only locally but nationally as well, especially considering his African-American roots and the simple fact that MLB needs to attract more Blacks to their sport. Both he and the White Sox have done a great job in this respect so it has been far less a problem in Chicago than in other markets.
I remember a few years ago there was talk of moving Anderson to CF. Thought it was a strong consideration at the time.
And Madrigal looks lost in the field.
Don’t fret over Nick Madrigal. His defense at 2B will be a huge plus for the White Sox over the years along with his high contact bat. We are both old enough to remember the double play combo of Hall of Fame middle infielders Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio from the White Sox ‘Go-Go’ era.
Madrigal will match or exceed the defense of Fox with his far better athleticism. Tim Anderson certainly has superior athleticism of his own. Perhaps Madrigal alongside him will help make TA a more consistent defender at SS. We both know that Anderson is already a far superior hitter than ‘Little Louie’.
Jury still out on Madrigal defense.
And Carlos May named his son Luis in honor of Aparicio.
Nick Madrigal had a pretty impressive defensive resume throughout his esteemed college career at OSU at both SS and 2B. He continued his plus defense at 2B during his minor league baptism with the White Sox and has been consistently lauded as the best keystone defender as a prospect.
You might recall Madrigal played all but 4 four games in his debut season last year with an injured left shoulder that needed a surgical cleanup following the playoffs. It didn’t stop him from hitting .340 and posting a 0.2 dWAR in his first 29 games at the MLB level. He made a couple of errors in the postseason along with a couple of base running gaffs during the regular season. I’d chalk that up to inexperience and his aggressive ‘throwback’ personality. Instead I’ll side with the scouts who not only view him as an elite contact hitter and defender but also as a plus base runner with a high baseball IQ.
How about we give Madrigal the benefit of the doubt based on his past resume and his potential as one of MLB’s highest floor prospects? Can we at least let him play a full season before passing such critical judgement. After all, how many years of struggling did fan favorite Tim Anderson endure before he finally became a star White Sox player the pasty two years?
Yes. That talk continued when the White Sox were courting Manny Machado a couple of offseason’s ago. Had that deal gone down, Either Tim Anderson or Yoan Moncada would have been looking for a new position, likely in the outfield. That or one of them becoming a valuable trade asset.
Fortunately, Machado took his talents to San Diego and the White Sox are better for it. I said it then and will continue now: The White Sox should have made a bigger push for Bryce Harper than Machado that offseason. They are covered at 3B, SS and 2B but are still looking for their core RF and one more high OPS bat in the middle of their batting order. Harper made more sense for the team on the diamond as well as for local AND national marketing purposes. The good news is that the White Sox have an awful lot of young talent who can also achieve those goals on their current roster with much smaller price tags.
Aaron, I like and respect a lot of your takes here…. Let’s slow down with Madrigal=Gold Glove, Madrigal= Dustin Pedroia, Madrigal=Nellie Fox, Madrigal= 3,000 hits… let’s wait and see what he does this season… he deserves the benefit of the doubt…. I think he will be solid…. any mistakes he made as a rookie should be chalked up to inexperience at this point and don’t define his future…. let’s not get ahead claiming gold glove, all star, mvp, and HOF…. I can’t imagine it would cost a lot, but there is no need for an extension on a unique player like Madrigal who has more to prove then most
Dunston was also a bit shaky with his glove work. I learned many four letter words in my youth from my father when Dunston would screw up.. Still over all not a bad player. I think Anderson is light years above Dunston though as Tim discovered he can hit to the opposite field and watched his BA skyrocket due to that.
Ah yes, the famous fatherly “sports vocabulary.”
Shawon Dunston played well enough to stick around MLB for 18 seasons. He was exclusively a starting SS for the Cubs in his first 11 seasons and continued that with the Giants in 1996. He spent the rest of his career in a utility or super-utility role playing all the infield and outfield positions.
The careers of Dunston and Tim Anderson had more similarities than differences early on. Both were erratic at SS but their great range and strong arms added to their ‘refigured’ dWAR metrics. Anderson has separated himself from Dunston as an offensive player the past two seasons including for the reason you offered. When all is said and done, I fully expect Anderson to post far better offensive numbers including those centering around his BA and SLG metrics.
It remains to be seen whether Anderson will stay at SS for as long as Dunston did but his bat will keep him a lineup regular for many years to come. It’s also fairly evident that TA will have a much better opportunity achieving postseason glory with the White Sox than what Dunston was able to accomplish on the northside of Chicago for 12 seasons. Anderson had a great start with his playoff resume in the brief 3-game ALWC versus the A’s last season with his 1.429 OPS.
How about a more contemporary comparison of Tim Anderson with recent Cubs shortstops like Starlin Castro and Javier Baez?
Anderson’s offense the past two season would be a decent comp with that of Castro’s early hitting ability with the Cubs. His most recent production has also put him in the offensive conversation with some of Baez numbers from 2016-2019. I’d take Baez glove easily over that of Anderson or Castro but after the 2020 season there are many Chicago baseball fans who might rather have Anderson and all that he offers over the Baez ‘package’. Much of that will be based on team prejudice but as a diehard fan of both teams since the early 1960’s I’d have to think long and hard over which star SS to choose going forward.
I wonder what Ricky Renteria would think if asked about Castro, Baez and Anderson considering he had a chance to manage all 3 of them in Chicago?
Left a lot of money on the table. Won’t be a free agent until his age-32 season.
Doubt it. Anderson is solid but he wouldn’t have been a free agent until after 2022. There are much better SS out there teams would rather pay. He has the most value to the White Sox.
Man that dude can hit. Reminds of Jean Segura on crack. The whole field is his playground