NL East club makes offer to former All-Star, batting champion
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported last week that the Miami Marlins had offered a contract to free-agent shortstop Tim Anderson.
MLB Network's Jon Morosi confirmed the report on Wednesday and added that the Marlins would plan to use the 30-year-old as their starter, despite a brutal 2023 season.
Anderson has spent his entire eight-year MLB career with the Chicago White Sox since being selected by the organization in the first round of the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft.
The Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native has had some incredibly high highs over his near decade in the league, winning a batting title in 2019 and leading the AL in runs scored in 2020 while earning a Silver Slugger award in the pandemic-shortened campaign as well.
Anderson made back-to-back All-Star teams in 2021 and 2022 and helped the Pale Hose make the playoffs in 2020 and 2021.
His 2023 season was a disaster from the start, though, and he finished with a career-low one home run, adding just 25 RBI and an anemic .245/.286/.296 slash line. Anderson also posted an atrocious 122 to 26 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his 493 at-bats covering 123 games.
He missed three weeks in April due to injury and was later suspended six games for his role in a brawl with the Cleveland Guardians.
Miami currently has speedster utilityman Jon Berti penciled in as the starting shortstop this year, but even coming off a career 2023 campaign, his numbers at the dish don't compare to the potential that Anderson could bring.
The 34-year-old Berti posted high marks in home runs (seven), RBI (33), runs scored (53), hits (114) and batting average (.294) last season. His 388 at-bats and 131 games played were career highs as well.
Despite last year's performance, Anderson's career 162-game average is 18 home runs, 61 RBI, 21 stolen bases and a .282/.312/.422 slash line.
If the Marlins are the only team willing to give Anderson another shot at a starting job, he should take it.
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