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Elvis Andrus

White Sox Place Elvis Andrus On 10-Day IL, Reinstate Romy Gonzalez

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The White Sox placed infielder Elvis Andrus on the 10-day injured list with a strained left oblique.  Taking Andrus’ spot on the active roster is Romy Gonzalez, who returns after his own 10-day IL stint due to inflammation in his right shoulder.

The injury occurred in yesterday’s 5-1 loss to the Astros, as Andrus reported some discomfort in his side after his final at-bat of the game.  Andrus was then replaced in the field for the top of the ninth, and the injury has proven troublesome enough to merit a trip to the IL.  The severity of Andrus’ strain isn’t yet known, though even if Andrus has only a Grade 1 strain (the lowest level of oblique problems), he is still likely to miss at least three or four weeks of action.

It has already been a rough year for Andrus, who has hit only .201/.280/.254 over 151 plate appearances.  Re-signed to a one-year, $3MM free agent deal in the offseason, Andrus was projected to be Chicago’s regular second baseman, but he has ended up getting a lot of time at his normal shortstop position due to Tim Anderson’s own stint on the IL earlier this season.  Defensive utility notwithstanding, Andrus’ lack of offensive production has resulted in a -0.1 fWAR performance through his first 39 games of the season.

Lenyn Sosa saw a lot of time at the keystone when Andrus was playing shortstop, but with Sosa currently at Triple-A, Gonzalez and Hanser Alberto figure to split second base duties in Andrus’ absence.  It’s not an ideal situation for a White Sox team that signed Andrus to ostensibly stabilize a longstanding hole at second base, though Alberto (a minor league signing) has at least hit .255/.304/.510 in his first 57 PA with the White Sox.

The Upcoming Shortstop Class Looks Increasingly Bleak

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The top free agent storyline of each of the past two offseasons was the respective star-studded shortstop classes. In 2021-22, it was Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Trevor Story and Javier Báez. Last winter, Correa was back on the market again, joined by Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson.

Next winter’s group was never going to rival that previous collection. The class in general is very light on star position player talent beyond Shohei Ohtani. It’s particularly barren up the middle of the diamond. It’s hard to imagine a more complete 180° turn than how things appear to be trending with the shortstop class, though. Virtually everyone involved is off to a very slow start.

The early-season performances from the impending free agents at the position:

Amed Rosario (28)*

While Rosario is not the superstar some evaluators had anticipated during his time in the Mets’ farm system, he’d been a solid regular for two seasons since landing in Cleveland in the Francisco Lindor blockbuster. Rosario’s solid batting averages helped offset his very low walk tallies. He hit 25+ doubles with double-digit homers in both 2021-22, playing on a near everyday basis. His cumulative .282/.316/.406 batting line was almost exactly league average. Public metrics were mixed on Rosario’s defense but the Guardians have been content to keep him at shortstop despite plenty of upper minors infield talent. Only 27 and without a ton of market competition, he entered the year in position for a strong three or four-year contract.

That could still be the case but Rosario is doing himself no favors with his early performance. He’s sitting on a .217/.262/.300 showing through his first 130 plate appearances. He has just one homer and is striking out at a 29.2% clip that’d easily be the worst full-season mark of his career if it holds. After making contact on 81.3% of his swings last season, he’s putting the bat on the ball only 71.5% of the time this year. He’s also committed six errors in 255 1/3 innings after being charged with just 12 in more than 1200 frames last year. Rosario is still the top impending free agent shortstop by default but he’s struggling in all areas right now.

Javier Báez (31), can opt out of final four years and $98MM on his contract

Báez is hitting .256/.318/.376 through his first 130 plate appearances. That’s an improvement over the lackluster .238/.278/.393 line he managed during his first season in Detroit. His 16.2% strikeout rate is the lowest of his career, pushing his overall offense near league average in spite of just three home runs in 32 games. Báez’s 2023 campaign has been fine but hardly overwhelming. It’s nowhere near what it’d take for him to beat the $98MM remaining on his existing contract. He’d need a torrid summer to put himself in position to test free agency.

Enrique Hernández (32)

Hernández has been pushed into primary shortstop duty by the Red Sox’ various injuries. The early reviews from public defensive metrics aren’t favorable, with Statcast putting him at seven outs below average in 199 innings. Hernández is off to an equally slow start at the plate. He’s hitting .236/.295/.362 over 139 plate appearances on the heels of a .222/.291/.338 showing last year. He’s been a valuable super-utility option and everyday center fielder at times in his career, including a 20-homer campaign in 2021. The past year-plus hasn’t been especially impressive, though, and Hernández has yet to demonstrate he’s capable of handling shortstop regularly from a defensive standpoint.

Brandon Crawford (37)

The career-long Giant had a tough April on both sides of the ball. He’s hitting .169/.244/.352 with a personal-high 28.2% strikeout rate in 21 games. His defensive marks through 173 2/3 innings are unanimously below-average. A right calf strain sent him to the injured list last week. Even if Crawford is willing to explore all opportunities next winter after 13 seasons in San Francisco, he’ll need much better production once he returns from the IL to find any interest as a starting shortstop.

Elvis Andrus (35)

Much of what applies to Crawford is also true for Andrus. He’s a 15-year MLB veteran with a couple All-Star appearances to his name but his offense has fallen off in recent seasons. Andrus was a well below-average hitter from 2018-21. He rebounded with a solid .249/.303/.404 showing last season but still didn’t generate much free agent attention. After settling for a $3MM deal with the White Sox, he’s hitting only .208/.291/.264 in 142 plate appearances this year. Andrus hit 17 homers last season but has just one through the first six weeks.

Nick Ahmed (34)

Another glove-first veteran, Ahmed is also off to a rough start at the plate. He carries a .227/.239/.318 line over 67 plate appearances. He’s hit only one home run and walked just once. Ahmed has always been a bottom-of-the-lineup defensive specialist, but his career .235/.289/.380 slash is much more tenable than the production he’s managed thus far in 2023. He lost almost all of last season to shoulder surgery.

Gio Urshela (32)

Urshela is hitting plenty of singles to start his time in Orange County. His .303 batting average is impressive but is paired with just a .325 on-base percentage and .345 slugging mark. He’s walking at a career-low 3.3% clip and has only three extra-base hits (two doubles and a homer) in 123 plate appearances.

More concerning for teams looking to the shortstop market is Urshela’s lack of experience at the position. He’s been a third baseman for the majority of his career. Since landing with the Angels, he’s assumed a multi-positional infield role that has given him eight-plus starts at shortstop and both corner infield spots. Even if he starts hitting for more power, he’s better deployed as a versatile infielder who can moonlight at shortstop than an everyday solution there.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa (28)

Kiner-Falefa lost his starting shortstop role with the Yankees towards the end of last season. He’s been kicked into a multi-positional capacity this year and hasn’t logged a single inning at the position in 2023. While Kiner-Falefa presumably could still handle shortstop if asked, he’s contributed nothing offensively in the early going. Through 72 plate appearances, he owns a .191/.225/.206 line.

Adalberto Mondesí (28)

Mondesí is young and has flashed tantalizing tools throughout his major league career. He’s also reached base at a meager .280 clip over 358 MLB games and battled various injuries. An April 2022 ACL tear cut that season short after just 15 games. The Red Sox nevertheless acquired him from the Royals over the offseason, but he’s yet to play a game with Boston. Mondesí opened the season on the 60-day injured list and won’t make his Sox debut until at least the end of this month. There’s a chance for him to play his way into some free agent interest. He’ll need an extended stretch of health and performance.

Players With Club Options

Both Tim Anderson and Paul DeJong can hit free agency if the White Sox and Cardinals decline respective 2024 club options. That seems likely in DeJong’s case but is reflective of the .196/.280/.351 line he managed between 2020-22. If he plays well enough to warrant significant free agent interest — he has been excellent in 11 games this season, to his credit — the Cardinals would exercise their $12.5MM option and keep him off the market anyhow.

The White Sox hold a $14MM option on Anderson’s services. That looks as if it’ll be a no-brainer for Chicago to keep him around (or exercise and make him available in trade). The only way Anderson gets to free agency is if his 2023 season is decimated by injury or an uncharacteristic performance drop-off, in which case he’d be a question mark as well.

Outlook

This was never going to be a great group. It’s comprised largely of glove-first veterans in their mid-30s. Players like Andrus, Ahmed, Crawford and José Iglesias — who’ll also hit free agency and has bounced around on minor league deals thus far in 2023 — don’t tend to be priority targets. That opened the door for the likes of Rosario, Báez and a potentially healthy Mondesí — younger players who have shown some offensive upside — to separate themselves from the pack in a way they wouldn’t have the last couple winters. No one has seized the mantle to this point. While there are still more than four months for someone to emerge, the early returns on the shortstop class aren’t promising.

*age for the 2024 season

Which Players Could White Sox Make Available Closer To The Trade Deadline?

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I wrote about the calamitous White Sox start on Friday, and over the weekend the team went 1-2, snapping a nine-game losing streak with a stunning seven-run bottom half of the ninth inning, walking off the Rays in the process. Even if that win sparks some momentum for a listless South Side club, the Sox are already nine back in the AL Central. They’d need to play at an 82-51 pace (.617) to get to 90 wins. It’s not even clear that’d be enough for a division win, with the Twins playing at a 95-win pace.

Early May is pretty early to be doing any forward-looking breakdown of what a team might have to offer at this year’s trade deadline, but the current state of the White Sox is a bit more dire than usual. Their playoff odds at FanGraphs have plummeted from 30.5% prior to the season to just 4.2% now. PECOTA has their playoff odds at just 3.2%. They have MLB’s second-worst run differential (-65) and are already battling myriad injuries with some glaring depth issues.

One of the most frequently asked questions over the past week in the chats we host at MLBTR has been one of who could be available if the Sox sell this summer. With that in mind and with an obligatory “it’s still only May 1” caveat, here’s a quick rundown of the possibilities and how they’ve begun the season.

Rental Players

The most obvious candidates to change hands if the Sox do indeed end up selling, all of these players are set to be free agents at season’s end anyhow. There are a couple of qualifying offer candidates within the group, so the Sox would need to feel they’re getting more than the value of a compensatory draft pick back in those instances.

Lucas Giolito, RHP, 28, $10.4MM salary

Giolito won’t turn 29 until mid-July and stands as one of the potential top arms on next offseason’s free-agent market … if he can round back into form this season and put an ugly 2022 campaign behind him. From 2019-21, the former first-round pick was one of the American League’s top arms, making the All-Star team in ’19 and securing Cy Young votes in all three of those seasons — including sixth- and seventh-place finishes in 2019 and 2020, respectively. During that stretch, Giolito logged a collective 3.47 ERA with a huge 30.7% strikeout rate and solid 8% walk rate.

The 2022 season was another story. Giolito’s fastball dropped from the 94.2 mph it averaged during that three-year peak down to 92.7 mph. His strikeout rate fell to an above-average but still-diminished 25.4%. His walk rate crept up a bit, to 8.7%. His opponents’ average exit velocity jumped from 87.8 mph to 88.8 mph, and his hard-hit rate rose from 34.5% to 39%. None of those are awful numbers, but everything went the wrong direction for Giolito in ’22. A huge .340 BABIP surely contributed to some of his struggles — being a fly-ball pitcher with the worst outfield defense in baseball isn’t fun — but it wasn’t a great season regardless.

Giolito’s picked some velocity back up early this season. His 23.1% strikeout rate isn’t near its peak, but his 4.1% walk rate is far and away a career-best mark. If the White Sox sell, Giolito will likely be one of the best and most in-demand starters on the market. He’s out to a decent start, and with his track record, age and upside, a qualifying offer seems likely, barring a disastrous collapse. The Sox would need to feel they got more value than they’d net in the form of a compensatory draft pick.

Reynaldo Lopez, RHP, 29, $3.625MM

Lopez has had a terrible start to the season, with an 8.76 ERA and five home runs allowed in just 12 1/3 innings (3.65 HR/9). He was very good in the ’pen in 2021-22, however, notching a 3.07 ERA with an above-average 24.8% strikeout rate and a 5.3% walk rate. In 2023, Lopez is sporting a career-best 33.3% strikeout rate, and he’s averaging a career-high 99.2 mph on his heater. His 14.6% swinging-strike rate is excellent. If Lopez who allowed just one home run in 55 2/3 innings last year, can get past this bizarre home run spike, he still has obvious late-inning potential and is the type of affordable power arm who’d appeal to other clubs.

Mike Clevinger, RHP, 32, $12MM

Clevinger technically has a 2024 option on his contract, but mutual options are almost exclusively accounting measures and are exercised by both parties with only the utmost rarity. He’s still just 32 years old, by Clevinger’s halcyon days feel like they were a lot longer ago than 2017-20. He missed the 2021 season following Tommy John surgery, came back with a diminished fastball and middling peripherals in ’22, and hasn’t looked much better in 2023, with a 4.60 ERA, below-average 19.3% strikeout rate and ugly 11.1% walk rate in 29 1/3 innings. Clevinger has gained some but not all of the life on his heater back, and his current 8.1% swinging-strike rate is both well below the league average (11.1%) and easily the lowest mark of his career. He’s pitching like a fifth starter right now, and not a particularly cheap one.

Elvis Andrus, 2B/SS, 35, $3MM

Andrus was great with the White Sox in place of an injured Tim Anderson down the stretch in 2022 (.271/.309/.464, nine homers, 11 steals) and has been the opposite so far in 2023, hitting .206/.274/.245 in 113 plate appearances with well below-average quality of contact, per Statcast. He can still play defense and has now shown a willingness to log some time at second base, so another club could look at him as a slick-fielding utility option. He’ll need to hit more than he has in the season’s first month, though.

Hanser Alberto, INF, 30, $2.3MM

Alberto has typically been a solid defender at three infield spots with good bat-to-ball skills, a bottom-of-the-barrel walk rate and minimal power. This season, however, he’s made some glaring misplays at third base and batted just .211/.211/.368 in 19 plate appearances before hitting the IL with a quad strain. It’s a tiny sample, but he needs to get healthy and play better to even make it to the trade deadline on the big league roster.

Yasmani Grandal, C, 34, $18.25MM

The switch-hitting Grandal has bounced back at the plate with a .241/.323/.446 batting line (114 wRC+) and three homers in 93 plate appearances. His 8.6% walk rate is well down from its career 14.5% level, and his once-vaunted defensive ratings have fallen below average at 34. Given his considerable salary, Grandal is only changing hands if the ChiSox eat a good portion of the bill.

Signed/Controlled for One Extra Year

Moving anyone from this group would signal a more aggressive seller’s standpoint from the front office, but the Sox would generally be able to retain their core players while also unlocking larger returns than they’d be land for their generally modest collection of rentals.

Tim Anderson, SS, 30 | $12.5MM in 2023, $14MM club option for 2024

Anderson batted above .300 in four straight seasons from 2019-22, turning in an overall .318/.347/.473 slash that was 23% better than league average, by measure of wRC+. The two-time All-Star is a regular threat for 15 to 20 home runs and 15 to 25 steals. Defensive metrics are mixed on his work at shortstop, but his only across-the-board below average season per DRS, UZR and OAA came in 2022, when he was hobbled by a groin strain. Anderson is a well above-average regular with All-Star potential and a highly affordable salary through the 2024 season.

The White Sox’ top prospect is 2021 first-rounder Colson Montgomery, who has become one of the game’s top-ranked shortstop prospects. He opened the season on the shelf with an oblique strain but could be ready for a big league look in 2024 after reaching Double-A as a 20-year-old in 2022.

Lance Lynn, RHP, 36 | $18.5MM in 2023, $18MM club option for 2024

Lynn, 36 next week, hasn’t been himself so far in 2023. His 10.1% walk rate is his highest since 2018 by a wide margin, and he’s allowed a jarring 2.20 homers per nine frames. The 94.4 mph he averaged on his heater in 2019-21 is down to 92.6 mph in 2023, and while he’s still missing bats in the zone and off the plate, Lynn has allowed too much hard contact when opponents do connect. Hitters posted just a .192/.238/.335 slash against Lynn’s four-seamer as recently as 2022, but they’re hitting .283/.365/.587 when putting the pitch in play this year. The 2019-22 version of Lynn is well worth that 2024 option price, but he needs to solve his home run woes.

Liam Hendriks, RHP, 34 | $14MM in 2023, $15MM club option for 2024

Hendriks hasn’t pitched this season but recently announced that he’s cancer-free after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma for the past several months. Hendriks is one of the game’s best relievers, and the priority is simply getting back on the field. If he looks like himself, he’d garner interest.

Joe Kelly, RHP, 35 | $9MM in 2023, $9.5MM club option for 2024

Kelly has been on the IL three times since signing a two-year, $17MM deal with the White Sox prior to the 2022 season. He also has a 6.26 ERA and a 12.6% walk rate with the South Siders. He’s still missing bats, racking up grounders and has had improved command in his tiny 4 2/3  inning sample this season. The Sox might have to eat some money to move him even if he’s pitching decently.

Kendall Graveman, RHP, 32 | $8MM in 2023, $8MM in 2024

Graveman is still throwing hard and missing bats at a solid clip, but his sinker isn’t getting grounders anywhere near its prior levels. He’s sitting on a 38.7% ground-ball rate in ’23 after living at 54% in 2021-22 and 52.1% in his career prior to the current season. On a surely related note, he’s giving up homers at a career-worst rate (2.38 HR/9). Graveman’s first season in Chicago was solid, but he’s at risk of becoming another high-priced bullpen misstep.

Jake Diekman, LHP, 36 | $3.5MM in 2023, $4MM club option for 2024

The White Sox acquired Diekman from the Red Sox at last year’s trade deadline even though he’d walked 17.5% of his opponents in Boston, and the command has only gotten worse. Diekman has walked a whopping 13 of his 58 opponents (22.4%) in 2023 while posting a 7.94 ERA. Command has always been a weak point, but this current rate just isn’t tenable. If he can’t right the ship, it’s hard to imagine him lasting on the roster until the trade deadline.

Longer Term Players

Moving anyone from this bunch is tougher to envision, as it would effectively signal a larger-scale rebuilding effort. While the Sox could still move one or even multiple players from this group without necessarily embarking on a full-scale rebuild, these moves would represent a clear step back from contending not only in 2023 but likely in 2024 at the very least — quite possibly longer.

Dylan Cease, RHP, 27 | $5.3MM in 2023, arb-eligible in 2024-25

Trading Cease would amount to waving a white flag not only on this season but on the entire rebuild that the Sox went through from 2016-20. Cease finished runner-up to Justin Verlander in American League Cy Young voting last year and was so dominant — 2.20 ERA, 30.4% strikeout rate, 6.4 bWAR in 184 innings — that he might’ve won in another year where he wasn’t chasing a historic comeback effort from a future Hall of Famer.

Cease’s velocity, strikeout rate and swinging-strike rate are all down a bit this season, but not in glaring, concerning fashion. He’s sporting a 4.15 ERA, though practically all the damage against him came at the hands of the Rays last week when the hottest team in baseball tagged him for seven runs. Cease won’t turn 28 until December. He’s a power-armed, bat-missing monster with two years of arbitration remaining after the current season. Pitchers like this almost never get traded, and it’s extra-tough to see the White Sox biting the bullet and making a move, since doing so just feels like a giant concession. If they do reach that point, Cease could generate one of the biggest hauls in recent trade deadline memory.

Michael Kopech, RHP, 27 | $2.05MM in 2023, arb-eligible in 2024-25

It’s been a poor start for Kopech (7.01 ERA in 25 2/3 innings) thanks to wobbly command that has manifested in a career-high 11.1% walk rate and, more problematically, a career-worst 2.81 HR/9 mark. Still, he’s a 27-year-old who once ranked as the sport’s top pitching prospect and as recently as 2021-22 logged a combined 3.53 ERA, 26.7% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate in 188 2/3 innings.

Kopech spent nearly all of the 2021 season in the bullpen as he worked back from Tommy John surgery and fanned a gaudy 36.1% of his opponents in that role. He’s a high-upside arm and has already seen his average fastball creep up from 95.1 mph in 2022 to 96.2 mph in 2023. Teams would love to get their hands on Kopech right now, and if he can cut back on the walks and homers, his value will only increase. This trade wouldn’t necessarily be the white flag that the Cease trade would be, but it’s hard to see Kopech going unless the Sox are pessimistic about their chances in the next couple of seasons as well.

—–

There are other names to consider, though each comes with plenty of red flags. Yoan Moncada is signed through 2024 and controllable through a 2025 club option, but he’s been neither healthy enough nor consistently productive enough to make the remaining $43.1MM in guarantees on his deal feel palatable for a trade partner. Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn and Aaron Bummer are all signed or controlled through at least 2026 (2027 in Robert’s case), which lessens any urgency to move those players. As it stands, the Sox would be selling low on anyone from that group of talented players. No one from that group feels likely to be a serious trade candidate this summer.

Of the three buckets listed above — “rental,” “one extra year” and “longer-term” — the rental pieces are the likeliest to go. Selling anything beyond that point, particularly a face of the franchise like Anderson or a controllable Cy Young-caliber talent like Cease, would likely signal a step back and longer-term rebuilding effort just two years after the Sox sought to emerge from their prior rebuild. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf is as loyal as they come, but one can imagine that the current meltdown could test even his patience; GM Rick Hahn candidly acknowledged last week in public comments that his job is likely on the line.

The White Sox still have a couple months to try to turn things around, but if things don’t improve in a hurry, then many of the names listed above will the most frequently discussed players on the 2023 summer rumor mill as contending teams look to beef up their rosters in advance of a postseason push.

AL Notes: Chapman, Andrus, Orioles

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Blue Jays third baseman Matt Chapman is entering his second and potentially final season in Toronto, as he looks set to hit free agency at season’s end. The 29-year-old addressed his long term future with the organization with Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star, saying he’s open to an extension but realistic about his future.

“I know the Blue Jays enjoy having me here and want to continue having me here,” Chapman said. “I know I want to continue to be here and be a part of this team. I’m sure conversations will be had along the way but, when I signed that two-year deal, I was anticipating they would have to pay Bo and Vladdy and all these young guys.”

With Manny Machado seemingly headed for the open market next winter, Chapman figures to be the second best third baseman available. Offensively he’s hit 27 home runs in each of the past two seasons, and has hit at least 24 in the last four 162-game seasons, while his glove has been worth 18 Outs Above Average over the past two seasons and 40 over his career. Another quality season should set Chapman up to do very well in free agency, whether that be for the Blue Jays or elsewhere.

Here’s some more bit and pieces from around the American League as full squad workouts begin:

  • The White Sox made their signing of infielder Elvis Andrus official today, confirming the one-year, $3MM deal. General manager Rick Hahn addressed the signing with reporters (including Scott Merkin of MLB.com) in Arizona, confirming the expectation is that Andrus will be Chicago’s everyday second baseman. Leury Garcia, Romy Gonzalez, Yolbert Sanchez, Lenyn Sosa and non-roster invite Hanser Alberto were all the previous candidates to man second, but Andrus will bump some combination of those players into bench/utility roles. With Tim Anderson entrenched at shortstop, this will be the first time Andrus has logged time at another defensive position, as all of his career 16,606 innings in the field have come at short. There seems little doubt about Andrus’ ability to handle second of course, given his track record of quality glove work at the more demanding shortstop position.
  • Speaking of free agency, Roch Kubatko of MASN reports that the Orioles are still involved in the free agency market, and have their eyes on a few major league players. Jurickson Profar stands out as comfortably the highest-profile player remaining in a very thin free agent field. Profar does make some sense as an upgrade over Austin Hays in left field, although it’s also not an obvious fit. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic did report back in January that the Orioles were involved in Profar, although they didn’t appear particularly confident of getting a deal done. Outside of Profar, there’s no available free agent who’d drastically alter Baltimore’s payroll for the upcoming season, but it is worth noting here CEO John Angelos’ comments about the team’s payroll moving forward.

 

White Sox Sign Elvis Andrus

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Feb. 20: The White Sox have announced the signing and confirmed the one-year, $3MM terms of the deal.

Feb. 19: The White Sox have signed infielder Elvis Andrus to a one-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  The contract will become official when Andrus passes a physical, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale adds that Andrus will earn a $3MM salary.  Andrus is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Andrus returns to the south side of Chicago after hitting .271/.309/.464 over 191 plate appearances with the White Sox last season.  Released by the A’s in August, the Sox quickly inked Andrus as a shortstop replacement for Tim Anderson, who ended up missing the rest of the season due to a torn hand ligament.  While only over a small sample size, Andrus’ performance with the Sox marked his best offensive surge in years, as the veteran had struggled at the plate during the end of his tenure with the Rangers and for much of his two seasons in Oakland.

With Anderson now back and healthy, the White Sox will use Andrus as their regular second baseman.  This is the first position change of Andrus’ 14-year MLB career, as he has exclusively played shortstop (with a handful of DH games) over his 1947 Major League games.  Andrus has made exactly one professional appearance as a second baseman, and it happened way back in his first pro season of 2005 with the Braves’ rookie ball affiliate.

Lack of experience notwithstanding, there probably isn’t much doubt that Andrus can handle the new position, given that he was still posting quality defensive numbers (as per the UZR/150 and Outs Above Average metrics) as a shortstop as recently as 2022.  It is certainly possible that Andrus’ glovework will be even better at an ostensibly easier position, which gives the White Sox a defensive boost heading into a season with new anti-shift rules coming into play.

The signing addresses a problem position for the Sox that has lingered all offseason.  Chicago signed Hanser Alberto, Erik Gonzalez, and Nate Mondou to minor league contracts, yet neither represented any real upgrade to a second base position that generated only 0.3 bWAR for the White Sox over the entire 2022 season.  With Andrus now in the fold, longtime utilityman Leury Garcia can now used in his usual multi-position role, and more inexperienced options like Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa can now compete for bench jobs or get more seasoning in the minor leagues.

The $3MM outlay for Andrus bumps Chicago’s payroll to roughly $189.1MM, as per Roster Resource.  This is a little less than the approximately $193MM the White Sox spent last season, though GM Rick Hahn indicated back in November that the club was planning to have around the same payroll as it did in 2022.  Some reports suggested that the Sox would even try to cut payroll down to around $180MM, though that plan may have been abandoned in light of rising free agent costs and a relative lack of league-wide action on the trade market.  If the Sox were in contention at midseason, owner Jerry Reinsdorf could possibly okay another payroll bump for a trade deadline addition, even if it’s probably safe to assume that a real spending splurge isn’t coming.

The Angels and Red Sox were the only teams publicly known to have interest in Andrus this winter, with Boston emerging in the wake of Trevor Story’s internal-brace surgery on his right elbow.  There was obviously a lot of action on the shortstop market this offseason, but once the big names of Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson all signed their contracts, remaining teams with shortstop needs seemed more willing to test out internal options rather than pursue a veteran like Andrus.  Becoming a second baseman might reflect the reality of the market for Andrus, or he might’ve just preferred an everyday role at a new position (and in a familiar environment) rather than remain a shortstop on a new team, but in more of a part-time capacity.

Angels Have Shown Interest In Elvis Andrus, Michael Wacha, Gary Sánchez

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The Angels didn’t make any earth-shattering moves this offseason but have nonetheless been busy adding complementary pieces to their squad. They’ve signed utility player Brandon Drury, left-hander Tyler Anderson, righty Carlos Estévez and outfielder Brett Phillips, in addition to trading for infielder Gio Urshela and outfielder Hunter Renfroe. With just over a week until Spring Training, it seems they are still not done, with Jon Heyman of The New York Post reporting they’ve been in touch on Elvis Andrus, Michael Wacha, Gary Sánchez, Andrew Chafin and Zack Britton.

The interest in Britton was reported last week but those four other names show that the club is casting a wide net in its continued search for upgrades to the roster. The interest in Chafin makes plenty of sense since he and Britton are both left-handed relievers. They are in very different positions as free agents, however, with Britton coming off a couple of injury-plagued seasons that followed a lengthy run as one of the best relievers in the league.

Chafin, on the other hand, has been fairly consistent for a few years and has been even better recently. Even though he had a rough showing in the shortened 2020 campaign, he’s still posted a 3.05 ERA over the past six seasons. Isolating that to just 2021 and 2022, his ERA was 2.29 with a 25.7% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 47.9% ground ball rate. Either of those two, or any of the other southpaw relievers still available, would be a logical addition for an Angels club that currently has 35-year-old Aaron Loup as its best option in that department. Loup posted a ridiculous 0.95 ERA with the Mets in 2021 but saw that number jump to 3.84 last year. The interest in those pitchers seems to be wide, however, with at least 10 teams seemingly in the running.

Andrus, 34, is a veteran shortstop who has appeared in each of the past 14 seasons. Generally considered to be a strong defender and baserunner, his bat has been inconsistent, though he’s coming off a strong platform in that regard. From 2018 to 2021, he hit just .255/.302/.360 for a wRC+ of 74, but he launched 17 home runs last year and slashed .249/.303/.404 for a wRC+ of 105. When combined with his glovework and 18 steals, he was worth 3.5 wins above replacement on the season. His market has been fairly quiet so far, with the Red Sox the only other club connected to him this offseason.

The Angels don’t really have a clear shortstop at the moment, with David Fletcher, Luis Rengifo and Urshela potential options there. All three of them have spent more time at other positions so far in their careers. Fletcher would be the strongest defensive option of that bunch, having received strong grades from advanced metrics. However, he’s generally fared poorly at the plate, outside of the shortened 2020 season. His career batting line is currently .278/.324/.360, wRC+ of 87. Rengifo and Urshela were both above average at the plate last year but got poor marks for their work at short. If Andrus were brought in, he could firm up the position and bump those guys into spending more time at second or the corners. Anthony Rendon and Jared Walsh should take third and first base, respectively, but both are question marks after injury-marred seasons. Having Urshela, Fletcher, Rengifo and Drury on the roster for one second base job and bench roles would be crowded, but any one player going to the IL would quickly free up some opportunities, and some of them are capable of playing the outfield as well.

Wacha, 31, is considered by many to be the top starting pitcher still unsigned based on his strong 2022 season, but his work prior to that season is mixed. With the Red Sox last year, he posted a 3.32 ERA over 127 1/3 innings, striking out just 20.2% of opponents but keeping his walks down to a 6% rate. He made multiple trips to the injured list on the year, however, which is likely a concern for interested clubs. He hasn’t hit the 130-inning mark since 2017 and has seen his results oscillate wildly since then. He had a 3.20 ERA in 2018 but made only 15 starts that year. That was followed by ERAs of 4.76, 6.62 and 5.05 over the next three years before the solid 2022 campaign.

That shakiness aside, there is a fit with the Halos. The club currently has five solid rotations options in Shohei Ohtani, Anderson, Reid Detmers, José Suarez and Patrick Sandoval. However, they have generally used a six-man rotation with Ohtani around, in order to limit his overall workload with him also playing in the lineup almost every day. That arrangement could suit Wacha well, since he hasn’t been able to stay healthy over a full season in recent years. He’s reportedly looking for a two-year deal and has also been connected to the Orioles and Twins, though that was before those clubs acquired Cole Irvin and Pablo López, respectively.

Sánchez, 30, had an extreme profile early on his career, tearing the cover off the ball but not getting great reviews for his glovework. Those extremes have been sanded down in recent years, as his work at the plate has cooled but his defense has seemingly been less concerning of late. With the Twins last year, he hit .205/.282/.377 for a wRC+ of 89, was considered above average by Defensive Runs Saved and got positive marks for his framing from both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. He was connected to the Giants at one point this offseason but that was before they agreed to terms with Roberto Pérez.

The club has a couple of catching options in Max Stassi and Logan O’Hoppe. However, they were connected to Willson Contreras earlier this winter and seem open to bolstering that area of the roster. Stassi was great in 2020 and 2021 but is coming off a down season at the plate where he hit just .180/.267/.303. O’Hoppe is a highly-touted prospect that came over to the club in the Brandon Marsh trade. He had an excellent year but has played just five major league games and none in Triple-A yet. It’s possible he just hits the ground running this year but it wouldn’t hurt to have another option since not all prospects immediately click at the big league level.

Financially, the club is in record territory but it doesn’t seem as though they’re maxed out. Their previous high for an Opening Day payroll was last year’s $189MM figure, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They’re currently around $206MM for the upcoming campaign, per Roster Resource, with a competitive balance tax figure of $220MM. That latter number is somewhat close to the lowest tax threshold of $233MM, though general manager Perry Minasian has said there’s no mandate from ownership to stay under that line.

It’s unlikely that the Angels will ultimately land all or even multiple members of this group, but there’s logic to the varied approach. The club already has star players in Mike Trout, Ohtani and, if healthy, Rendon. What they have lacked in recent years is strong depth to cover for injuries or underperformance elsewhere on the roster. It seems the club has some awareness of that fact and is setting its sights on packing the roster with various quality players so that cavities don’t develop throughout the year. Speaking of Rendon, Heyman reports that he’s feeling fantastic. He was excellent for the Angels in 2020, the first year of his deal with the club. He hit .286/.418/.497 for a wRC+ of 152. However, injuries have limited him to just 102 games combined over the past couple of seasons, with diminished production when on the field. If his health cooperates, he could be a difference maker for the club this year, but it also seems like they’re planning to have plenty of fallback options around the roster. It will be an interesting season for the Angels since it’s the last year before Ohtani is slated to reach free agency, with fans of many rival clubs hoping that he’s available at the trade deadline. For now though, it seems like the club is still committed to putting together a strong team and avoiding that path.

Which Teams Make The Most Sense For Elvis Andrus?

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This offseason’s crop of free agents featured a clear top four in the shortstop category. Carlos Correa, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson were all highly sought after and all ended up securing deals well into nine-figure territory. There was a steep drop to the fifth best option, Elvis Andrus. Though there were many teams who expressed interested in the “Big Four” that ended up missing out, none have made a pivot to Andrus as a backup plan thus far. With just three weeks remaining until Spring Training begins, Andrus is still unsigned.

The 34-year-old Andrus has 14 years of MLB experience, having debuted with the Rangers as a 20-year-old back in 2009. He spent many years with Texas, hitting at a below-average level but still proving to be a valuable player via his speed and defense. In the 11 seasons from 2009 to 2019, he hit just 73 home runs and walked in just 7.3% of his plate appearances, but he also struck out at just a 13.6% rate. His batting line in that time was .275/.331/.373 for a wRC+ of 86, indicating he was 14% below league average. However, he also stole 302 bases and also graded very well on the dirt. Defensive Runs Saved had him just a hair above average, but Ultimate Zone Rating gave him a score of 28.2, the fifth-highest among shortstops in that time. Outs Above Average, which was only introduced in 2016, graded him at plus-14, which was also fifth-best at the position. Despite the subpar batting, his 30.3 wins above replacement from FanGraphs was the second-most of all shortstops in that timeframe, trailing only Troy Tulowitzki.

Andrus had a down year in the shortened 2020 campaign and was traded to the A’s prior to 2021. He ended up having another typical season for him, hitting at a 74 wRC+ level but stealing 12 bases and getting some good grades for his work on the dirt. That led to him accumulating 1.6 fWAR on the year. In 2022, Andrus actually had a better season, despite being released by the A’s in the summer. That release seems to have been financially motivated, as Andrus had a slightly complicated finish to his contract. The 2022 season was the final guaranteed year of the extension he signed with the Rangers back in 2013. There was also a $15MM club option for 2023 but it would become a player option if Andrus was traded at some point and also logged 550 plate appearances in 2022.

Andrus was getting regular playing time with the rebuilding A’s and was well on his way to meeting that plate appearance threshold, but they instead released him in August. Andrus signed a new contract with the White Sox who needed a shortstop replacement for the injured Tim Anderson, eventually getting to 577 plate appearances on the year. Because he signed a new contract with the White Sox, the option was a moot point. He finished the year with a .249/.303/404 batting line and a wRC+ of 105. Thanks to his 18 steals and shortstop defense, he was worth 3.5 fWAR on the season between the two clubs.

Despite that solid platform year, Andrus lingers on the market. It’s probable that clubs are a bit skeptical of the 2022 output since Andrus hit .255/.302/.360 over the four prior seasons — but even that diminished version of Andrus was worth 4.3 fWAR in 419 games. Many teams still have shortstop deficiencies, and Andrus could also potentially help out teams that are weak at second base. He’s never played on the other side of the bag but expressed a willingness to do so last year with the White Sox when there was a possibility Anderson could return from the IL and retake the shortstop position. Despite the lack of experience at the position, many shortstops have found it easy to make the transition to second, which is considered a less-demanding spot.

Even with various qualities he could bring to a club, the market for Andrus has seemingly been quiet. The primary public link has been to the Red Sox, in the wake of Trevor Story requiring internal brace surgery on his elbow. Given that the club also lost Bogaerts to the Padres, they are now doubly lacking in the middle infield. Since then, they’ve signed Adam Duvall to hopefully be their everyday center fielder, thus moving Enrique Hernández to shortstop. Hernandez has only ever had part-time work at the position but recently expressed his excitement about a lengthier stint there, appearing on NESN during the club’s Winter Weekend festivities. With Christian Arroyo playing second base, it’s possible the Sox consider themselves set, but Duvall has never been a full-time center fielder and the same goes for Hernandez at short. That’s risky enough as it is, but one injury suddenly makes the situation look even worse. Adding Andrus and moving Hernandez to second or center field would improve the depth significantly. Jon Morosi of MLB Network recently suggested the Sox would like to bring Andrus aboard as a non-roster invitee, but it would register as a surprise if he couldn’t get a modest major league deal elsewhere, given his decent floor and solid year in 2022. The Sox are still more than $15MM shy of the luxury tax, per Roster Resource, and could still fit a modest deal on the books without pushing against it.

There are plenty of other logical suitors. The Diamondbacks currently have Nick Ahmed lined up to be their primary shortstop. Like Andrus, he’s a strong defender who doesn’t hit much, but he’s also been dealing with shoulder problems for years. Those shoulder troubles put him under the knife last year and he was only able to get into 17 games. Geraldo Perdomo was pushed into regular duty to cover for Ahmed but had a poor season on both sides of the ball. The club has an excellent second baseman in Ketel Marte but he’s been battling lingering hamstring issues for the past couple of seasons. A reliable veteran middle infielder would make plenty of sense for the Snakes.

A return to the White Sox would also make sense, even though Anderson should be back in the shortstop position. The second base spot is less clear, with Josh Harrison a free agent and Danny Mendick having signed with the Mets. Romy González, Leury García, Lenyn Sosa and non-roster invitee Hanser Alberto are some of the options that will be in camp next month, though none of those options are particularly inspiring. Andrus already said he’d be willing to play second next to Anderson and perhaps that would be a better option for the Sox than anything else currently on hand.

The Angels seem set to go into the year without a clear-cut shortstop. Luis Rengifo, David Fletcher and Gio Urshela are all possibilities, though none of them are really perfect. All three of them are multi-positional players that have spent much more time at other spots on the diamond. Fletcher probably has the strongest defensive argument to get the job, since he’s been graded a bit above average by all three of DRS, UZR and OAA for his career. However, he’s provided very little at the plate outside of the shortened 2020 season. Also, with Anthony Rendon and Jared Walsh coming off injury-marred campaigns, the Halos have question marks at both corner infield spots. Brandon Drury and Urshela can help out, but there’s still sense in further bolstering the depth.

The Marlins have been busy on the trade market lately, sending shortstop Miguel Rojas to the Dodgers and acquiring Luis Arraez in a trade sending Pablo Lopez to the Twins. Their current plans seems to be to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to center field, leaving them with an infield of Jean Segura at third, Joey Wendle at shortstop, Arraez at second base and Garrett Cooper at first. They’ve been recently connected to first baseman Yuli Gurriel, with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reporting that Gurriel could play some second or third base. That’s a risky plan since he’ll turn 39 in June and hasn’t seen meaningful time at either of those positions since 2019. He’s also coming off a pretty poor year at the plate. The club is already taking a big risk on defense by having a center fielder with no experience there and two left-side infield positions manned by players who have spent much more time elsewhere. Arraez has plenty of second base experience but was graded poorly there, and the Twins bumped him to first base before trading him to Miami. Perhaps adding Andrus and moving Wendle back to a utility role would be a more elegant solution than the Gurriel option.

The Astros have Jeremy Peña and Jose Altuve up the middle and certainly don’t need help there. However, they lost their backup/utility option Aledmys Díaz to the A’s in free agency. They could replace him in-house with Mauricio Dubón and David Hensley, but Dubón had a poor year at the plate in 2022 and Hensley has been more of a utility player than a regular at shortstop. The Astros are probably fine if everyone is healthy, but an injury to Peña could make the depth start to feel a little shaky.

The Braves have lost Swanson to the Cubs but haven’t done anything to replace him. It seems the plan is to install 22-year-old Vaughn Grissom in the position and hope he can handle it. There’s risk in that plan as he has just 41 games of MLB experience, including just 10 innings at short. He has much more experience at the position in the minors, but many prospect evaluators have suggested he’s stretched at that spot and should move to second, third or the outfield. Should the Grissom experiment fail, the club’s best backup plan right now is Orlando Arcia. He has lots of shortstop experience with the Brewers but doesn’t hit much and eventually got moved into a utility role.

The Rockies had José Iglesias as their shortstop last year, but he is now a free agent. They seem ready to hand the reins over to prospect Ezequiel Tovar, who made his MLB debut last year. However, he’s still just 21 years old, has played just 80 games above the High-A level and only 14 of those above Double-A. Should he struggle in his first real taste of the majors, their backup plan would be to turn to Alan Trejo or Cole Tucker, neither of whom having much major league success of their own.

There’s also the wild card that is the World Baseball Classic, which takes place in March. Dozens of major league players will be ramping up quicker than they would in a normal spring and diving into competitive action. That creates the possibility that someone will sustain an injury that creates a new opening for Andrus. Some of the middle infielders that are set to participate in the WBC include Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil, Andrés Giménez and many more.

What do you think? Where do you think Andrus winds up? Have your say in the poll below.

(poll link for app users)

Red Sox Interested In Jurickson Profar, Elvis Andrus

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The Red Sox were known to be looking for middle infield help even before news broke earlier this week about Trevor Story’s internal brace surgery on his right elbow, which could keep the shortstop on the injured list for most (or potentially all) of the 2023 season.  In the wake of Story’s surgery, two names have surfaced on Boston’s radar, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that the Sox have interest in both Jurickson Profar and Elvis Andrus.

In terms of being a replacement for Story at shortstop, Andrus is the cleaner fit, as the veteran could simply step right into a regular shortstop role.  Apart from 25 games as a DH, Andrus has exclusively played shortstop in the other 1914 games of his 14-year Major League career.  Public defensive metrics are a little mixed on Andrus’ glovework (+4.7 UZR/150 and +3 Outs Above Average in 2022, countered by a -4 Defensive Runs Saved score), but all in all, Andrus still looks like he can provide at least acceptable defense even at age 34.

At the plate, Andrus has been inconsistent at best over his career, but he did enjoy a lot of success in a late-season cameo with the White Sox in 2022.  Released by the A’s in August, Chicago signed Andrus as a replacement for the injured Tim Anderson, and Andrus responded with a very solid .271/.309/.464 slash line and nine home runs over 191 plate appearances with the Pale Hose.  His overall 105 wRC+ for the season and his 3.5 fWAR were Andrus’ highest totals in either category since 2017, and his 17 homers was the second-highest total of his career.

Despite this nice performance, there hasn’t been much buzz about Andrus on the open market this winter, as teams are perhaps more focused on Andrus’ age, his ability to replicate his 2022 numbers, and his more unspectacular recent track record before last season — Andrus accumulated a modest 4.3 fWAR combined from 2018-21.  Still, there was some speculation that Andrus’ market wouldn’t really pick up until the “big four” free agent shortstops (Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, Dansby Swanson) were off the board, and teams still in need of shortstop help could turn to Andrus as more of a stop-gap option.

The Red Sox technically fit this description given their loss of Bogaerts, and Boston had shown at least some level of interest in such infield trade targets as Amed Rosario, Paul DeJong, Joey Wendle, and (before he was dealt from the Marlins to the Dodgers) Miguel Rojas.  All of these players would’ve been eyed for the shortstop job, as the Sox could’ve then stuck to their initial plan of using Enrique Hernandez mostly in center field, or at least as a player who could be bounced around the diamond rather than someone primarily locked into a shortstop role.

Profar’s addition would create some lineup shuffling, and likely result in Hernandez getting more time at short.  Profar hasn’t played shortstop since 2018, and while he was once a multi-position type, 2022 marked the first time that Profar played exclusively at one position, as the Padres deployed him only as a left fielder.  The newly-signed Masataka Yoshida has already been tabbed for left field duty in Fenway Park, so the Red Sox could move Profar (who turns 30 in February) around to the other outfield positions, or possibly second or first base.

MLBTR projected Profar for a two-year, $20MM deal this winter, and the Yankees and Astros have both shown some interest in his services at various times this winter.  Two weeks ago, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco broke down Profar’s potential market and some teams that might emerge as fits, though the Red Sox weren’t cited due to the assumption that Yoshida had filled the outfield need.  Of course, injuries can instantly bring new teams into the mix, and Profar’s market could further expand if teams do see him as a candidate for positions beyond only left field.

The Best Remaining Free Agent At Each Position

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The lingering Carlos Correa saga hangs over the free agency market, but beyond him the bulk of the free agents have found new homes for the 2023 season and beyond. While we won’t be seeing any monster deals from here, there are still a handful of players that could still have a positive impact on a new team. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best (in this writer’s view anyway) remaining free agents at each position.

For a full list of the remaining free agents, go here.

Starting Pitcher: Johnny Cueto: 158 1/3 innings pitched, 3.35 ERA, 5.8 SO/9, 1.9 BB/9. Cueto enjoyed something of a resurgence last year for the White Sox, putting together his best campaign since 2016. His strikeout rate declined considerably but he offset that by displaying some of the best control of his career. He’ll turn 37 in February, so likely will only command a one-year deal but teams in need of a veteran arm to stabilize the backend of the rotation could certainly do worse than adding Cueto. The Padres, Marlins, Blue Jays and Reds have all had reported interest in the veteran right-hander at various stages of the off-season, while teams like the Angels have shown recent interest in adding another starter.

Relief Pitcher: Andrew Chafin: 57 1/3 IP, 2.83 ERA, 10.5 SO/9, 3.0 BB/9. Chafin’s been a quality left-handed reliever for the past few seasons now, the last of which came with the Tigers. He’s effective against both left and right-handed hitters, and should fit in as a late-inning arm wherever he winds up landing. Control was an issue earlier in his career, but he seems to have tidied that up and posted a mark below 8% for the second-straight season. That figure came with a quality 27.6% strikeout rate. After declining a $6.5MM option on his contract with the Tigers, he should be able to top that on the open market on a multi-year deal.

Catcher: Gary Sanchez: 471 plate appearances, .205/.282/.377, 16 home runs. The Yankees flipped Sanchez to Twins last winter after growing frustrated with his performance over the previous few seasons. Sanchez undoubtedly has talent, as evidenced by the 53 home runs and 143 wRC+ he compiled between 2016-17. He’s not come close to replicating that in the years since, slashing .202/.295/.427 for a below-average wRC+ of 96 between 2018-22. Sanchez has never been regarded as one of the top defensive catchers, but did post his best framing numbers per Fangraphs’ metric since 2018, and gave up the fewest wild pitches of his career (excluding the shortened 2020 season and 2016, when he didn’t play a full year). While a number of teams have filled their vacancy at catcher, the likes of the Red Sox, Tigers and Marlins could be among the teams interested.

First base: Trey Mancini: 587 PA, .239/.319/.391, 18 HR. Mancini split time between the Orioles and Astros in 2022, putting together a solid enough campaign at the plate. His 104 wRC+ in the past two seasons indicates he’s just four percent above the league average at the plate. For a first base/corner outfielder that’s unlikely to command a significant guarantee in free agency, but Mancini could still land a multi-year guarantee. There’s certainly an argument to be made that Mancini belongs in that outfield group of such an article, but any acquiring team would surely have him splitting time between first base and the outfield. Mancini was worth 2 Outs Above Average in 323 innings at first in 2022, the best mark of any of the positions he played.

Second base: Josh Harrison: 425 PA, .256/.317/.370, 7 HR. The 35-year-old Harrison recovered from a slow start to finish with a respectable season for the White Sox, finishing with a slightly below average 98 wRC+. That came after he was hitting just .167/.248/.255 on June 2. He doesn’t offer much in the way of power, but he provides a solid contact bat who can play all over the infield. Harrison logged most of his defensive time at second base, where he was worth 3 Defensive Runs Saved. He was also worth 3 DRS at third base, and can fill in at short and the corner outfield spots at a pinch. Teams in need of a veteran utility player could do worse than adding Harrison on a one-year deal.

Shortstop: Elvis Andrus: 577 PA, .249/.303/.404, 17 HR. Andrus started the year in Oakland, but was released in August and finished the season with the White Sox. The 34-year-old has a bit of pop in his bat, and grades out well defensively at shortstop, where he was worth 3 Outs Above Average in 2022. He may very well be the best infielder left on the open market, yet it’s been a quiet winter for Andrus, with little reported movement in his market. Obviously Correa has not officially signed a contract, but for the purposes of this article we’ll assume he’s heading to the Mets in which case Andrus would be the next best option for teams on the hunt for a shortstop.

Third base: Brian Anderson: 383 PA, .222/.311/.346, 8 HR. Anderson put up the worst offensive numbers of his five full seasons with the Marlins in 2022, finishing up with a 90 wRC+. That was the second-straight season of offensive decline for the 29-year-old, who put up a 115 wRC+ between 2018-20. He’s split time between third base and right field in recent times, grading out well in both until 2022. Last year, he was worth -4 DRS after picking up 12 DRS over the previous three seasons at the hot corner. The decline was enough for the Marlins to non-tender him this winter ahead of his final year of arbitration, but he could make sense as a buy-low bounceback candidate for any number of teams.

Left/Right field: Jurickson Profar: 658 PA, .243/.331/.391, 15 HR. Profar is arguably the top remaining free agent available. The 29-year-old (30 in February) puts the ball in play plenty, as evidenced by his quality 15.7% strikeout rate. He also takes plenty of walks and has a bit of pop in the bat. A former middle infielder, the Padres played him exclusively in left last year and he picked up 2 Defensive Runs Saved. He turned down an $7.5MM in favor of a $1MM buyout this winter to hit the open market in search of a multi-year deal. The Rangers and Yankees make sense as teams looking for left field help, while the Marlins and Rockies could also make sense.

Center field: Albert Almora: 235 PA, .223/.282/.349, 5 HR. The center field market was not deep to begin with, and is now largely limited to glove first options. Almora doesn’t pose much of a threat with the bat, as evidenced by his 71 wRC+, but he was worth 8 Defensive Runs Saved in the outfield for the Reds, with four of those coming in center field. He’s unlikely to be a starting option for teams but would make sense as a glove-first bench option.

Designated Hitter: Nelson Cruz: 507 PA, .234/.313/.337, 10 HR. After a number of years of elite production at the plate, 2022 was the first below average year for Cruz since 2007 (per wRC+). He’s now 42, so betting on him bouncing back is a risky one, but he mashed 89 home runs and compiled a 146 wRC+ between 2019-21 so it’s not like this has been a steady decline over a number of years. With that being said, he hasn’t played the field at all since 2018 so is exclusively limited to DH duties. It was reported a few days ago that he has received offers for the 2023 season though, so it seems he will be back for a 19th big league season.

The Top Remaining Free Agent Middle Infield Options

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Jean Segura came off the board last week on a two-year deal with the Marlins. That removed the top remaining free agent middle infielder, leaving clubs with very few possibilities for help either at shortstop or second base.

Of course, Carlos Correa lingers over the entire market. Until he officially puts pen to paper somewhere, there’s at least a chance for another twist in that saga. Various reports have suggested Correa’s focused on hammering out his deal with the Mets in spite of their concerns about his physical, and that was essentially confirmed yesterday by Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. We’ll set Correa aside and look at the best options remaining for teams outside of Queens.

Here are the still-unsigned free agent middle infielders who tallied at least 150 plate appearances in 2022:

  • Elvis Andrus (34): Andrus is arguably the top unsigned free agent infielder. The 14-year veteran still brings a high-contact bat and quality baserunning to the table. Public defensive metrics have been divided on his work recently, with Statcast’s Outs Above Average generally rating him as an above-average shortstop despite less enthusiastic reviews from Defensive Runs Saved. Andrus looked like a glove-only player after hitting .255/.302/.360 from 2018-21, but he bounced back with a solid 2022 campaign. He hit .249/.303/.404 with 17 home runs (the second-highest total of his career) last season. That included a very strong finish, as Andrus hit .271/.309/.464 in 43 games with the White Sox after the A’s released him in mid-August in a move seemingly motivated by a desire to keep him from vesting a $15MM option in his contract for the 2023 season.
  • Josh Harrison (35): The final couple months of the season saw Andrus and Harrison overlap on Chicago’s South Side. The latter played the entire season there after signing a one-year free agent deal during Spring Training. Harrison appeared in 119 games, mostly split between second and third base. He hit .256/.317/.370 with seven home runs across 425 trips to the plate, overcoming a slow start to finish the year with roughly average offensive numbers. The veteran had posted similar numbers in each of the previous two seasons. He doesn’t draw many walks or hit for significant power, but he’s a respected clubhouse presence who consistently puts the ball in play. Harrison still earns solid grades from defensive metrics for his second and third base work; he’s not an option at shortstop, however.
  • José Iglesias (33): Iglesias spent the 2022 season as the primary shortstop in Colorado. He hit .292/.328/.380 through 467 plate appearances, right in line with the production he’s managed over the past four seasons. Igleias is very difficult to strike out and hits for consistently high batting averages, albeit without much else to drive the offensive profile. He rarely walks or hits home runs, though he’s a threat for 25-plus doubles annually. That offense sufficed when paired with the excellent defense that defined his early MLB tenure. He’s drawn less favorable reviews from public metrics the past two seasons though. Statcast has pegged him as a league average shortstop in each of the last two campaigns, but Defensive Runs Saved has rated him a staggering 26 runs below average since the start of 2021. How teams feel about Iglesias’ glove at this stage of his career figures to determine whether he’ll get semi-regular playing time again or have to assume more of a utility role in 2023.
  • César Hernández (32): Hernández suited up 147 times and tallied 617 plate appearances with the Nationals last season. He was a durable presence in the lineup for manager Dave Martinez but had a rough season. Just a year after popping a career-high 21 home runs, the switch-hitter mustered only one longball in the nation’s capital. Hernández is limited to second base and has posted subpar defensive metrics in each of the last two years. He might be limited to minor league offers.
  • Rougned Odor (29): Odor spent the 2022 campaign in Baltimore, his third team in as many seasons. The production was similar as it has been at each of the previous two stops. Odor has enough left-handed power to connect on 10-15 home runs with fairly regular playing time. Yet he also makes plenty of outs thanks both to consistently low walk rates and a propensity for infield pop-ups. Odor is almost strictly a second baseman — he has intermittent experience at third base as well — and posted below-average defensive numbers last year.

Utility Types/Bounceback Fliers

  • Hanser Alberto (30): Alberto brings a high-contact righty bat to a bench. He never walks and has only once topped three home runs in a season but has plus bat-to-ball skills and is well-regarded as a clubhouse presence. Alberto hit .244/.258/.365 in 159 plate appearances with the Dodgers in 2022.
  • Johan Camargo (29): Camargo spent the 2022 season with the Phillies, hitting .237/.297/.316 through 166 plate appearances. The switch-hitter had a pair of productive years with the Braves to open his MLB career but has since had four straight well below-average seasons. Camargo’s most natural fit is at third base, though he played more shortstop with Philadelphia.
  • Harold Castro (29): A left-handed hitter, Castro makes a decent amount of contact. He’s a career .284 hitter but rarely walks or hits for power. He’s played extensively throughout the infield and even logged a fair bit of center field work but rated poorly defensively at every stop. The Tigers non-tendered him at the end of the season.
  • Yu Chang (27): Chang bounced around the league via waivers in 2022, suiting up for four teams. He hit .208/.289/.315 in 190 combined plate appearances. Chang had been a prospect of some regard during his time in the Cleveland farm system. He hasn’t hit in limited MLB looks in any of the past four seasons but can play all four infield spots.
  • Didi Gregorius (33): Gregorius was an above-average shortstop as recently as 2020. Unfortunately, a two-year free agent deal to return to the Phillies over the 2020-21 offseason didn’t pan out. Gregorius struggled offensively in both seasons, including a .210/.263/.304 line in 232 trips to the plate last year. The Phils cut him in early August and he didn’t sign elsewhere before year’s end.
  • Josh VanMeter (28): VanMeter is primarily a second baseman who has some experience at the corner spots. He hit .187/.266/.292 with a trio of home runs through 192 plate appearances with the Pirates last season.
  • Jonathan Villar (31): Villar has excellent speed and has stolen more than 35 bases on three separate occasions. He’s intermittently been a productive hitter, posting above-average offensive numbers as recently as 2021. Last season was a disappointment, however. Villar hit .208/.260/.302 in 220 plate appearances between the Cubs and Angels. He spent the final couple months of the year in Triple-A.
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