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The White Sox have signed infielder Elvis Andrus to a one-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports.
The contract will turn out to be official when Andrus passes a bodily, and USA As we speak’s Bob Nightengale adds that Andrus will earn a $3M wage. Andrus is represented by the Boras Company.
Andrus returns to the south aspect of Chicago after hitting .271/.309/.464 over 191 plate appearances with the White Sox final season. Launched by the A’s in August, the Sox rapidly inked Andrus as a shortstop alternative for Tim Anderson, who ended up lacking the remainder of the season because of a torn hand ligament.
Whereas solely over a small pattern dimension, Andrus’ efficiency with the Sox marked his finest offensive surge in years, because the veteran had struggled on the plate in the course of the finish of his tenure with the Rangers and for a lot of his two seasons in Oakland.
With Anderson now again and wholesome, the White Sox will use Andrus as their common second baseman. That is the primary place change of Andrus’ 14-year MLB profession, as he has solely performed shortstop (with a handful of DH video games) over his 1947 Main League video games.
Andrus has made precisely one skilled look as a second baseman, and it occurred approach again in his first professional season of 2005 with the Braves’ rookie ball affiliate.
Lack of expertise however, there most likely isn’t a lot doubt that Andrus can deal with the brand new place, on condition that he was nonetheless posting high quality defensive numbers (as per the UZR/150 and Outs Above Common metrics) as a shortstop as just lately as 2022.
It’s actually potential that Andrus’ glovework shall be even higher at an ostensibly simpler place, which provides the White Sox a defensive enhance heading right into a season with new anti-shift guidelines coming into play.
The signing addresses an issue place for the Sox that has lingered all offseason. Chicago signed Hanser Alberto, Erik Gonzalez, and Nate Mondou to minor league contracts, but neither represented any actual improve to a second base place that generated solely 0.3 bWAR for the White Sox over your complete 2022 season.
With Andrus now within the fold, longtime utilityman Leury Garcia can now utilized in his common multi-position position, and extra inexperienced choices like Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa can now compete for bench jobs or get extra seasoning within the minor leagues.
The $3M outlay for Andrus bumps Chicago’s payroll to roughly $189.1M, as per Roster Resource. This can be a little lower than the roughly $193M the White Sox spent final season, although GM Rick Hahn indicated again in November that the membership was planning to have across the similar payroll because it did in 2022.
Some reviews instructed that the Sox would even attempt to reduce payroll all the way down to round $180M, although that plan might have been deserted in mild of rising free agent prices and a relative lack of league-wide motion on the commerce market.
If the Sox had been in competition at midseason, proprietor Jerry Reinsdorf may probably okay one other payroll bump for a commerce deadline addition, even when it’s most likely secure to imagine that an actual spending splurge isn’t coming.
The Angels and Pink Sox had been the one groups publicly identified to have curiosity in Andrus this winter, with Boston rising within the wake of Trevor Story’s internal-brace surgery on his proper elbow.
There was clearly a whole lot of motion on the shortstop market this offseason, however as soon as the large names of Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson all signed their contracts, remaining groups with shortstop wants appeared extra prepared to check out inside choices slightly than pursue a veteran like Andrus.
Changing into a second baseman may replicate the truth of the marketplace for Andrus, or he may’ve simply most well-liked an on a regular basis position at a brand new place (and in a well-known atmosphere) slightly than stay a shortstop on a brand new workforce, however in additional of a part-time capability.
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