The White Sox have signed infielder Elvis Andrus to a one-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reviews (Twitter hyperlink). The contract will grow to be official when Andrus passes a bodily, and USA Right now’s Bob Nightengale provides that Andrus will earn a $3MM 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 shortly inked Andrus as a shortstop alternative for Tim Anderson, who ended up lacking the remainder of the season on account of a torn hand ligament. Whereas solely over a small pattern measurement, Andrus’ efficiency with the Sox marked his greatest 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 completely 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 means 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 not too long ago as 2022. It’s actually doable that Andrus’ glovework will likely be even higher at an ostensibly simpler place, which supplies 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 regular multi-position function, 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 $3MM outlay for Andrus bumps Chicago’s payroll to roughly $189.1MM, as per Roster Useful resource. This can be a little lower than the roughly $193MM the White Sox spent final season, although GM Rick Hahn indicated again in November that the membership was planning to have across the identical payroll because it did in 2022. Some reviews urged that the Sox would even attempt to reduce payroll all the way down to round $180MM, although that plan might have been deserted in gentle of rising free agent prices and a relative lack of league-wide motion on the commerce market. If the Sox have been in competition at midseason, proprietor Jerry Reinsdorf might presumably okay one other payroll bump for a commerce deadline addition, even when it’s most likely protected to imagine that an actual spending splurge isn’t coming.
The Angels and Pink Sox have been the one groups publicly recognized to have curiosity in Andrus this winter, with Boston rising within the wake of Trevor Story’s internal-brace surgical procedure on his proper elbow. There was clearly plenty 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 keen to check out inner choices somewhat than pursue a veteran like Andrus. Changing into a second baseman would possibly mirror the fact of the marketplace for Andrus, or he would possibly’ve simply most well-liked an on a regular basis function at a brand new place (and in a well-known surroundings) somewhat than stay a shortstop on a brand new workforce, however in additional of a part-time capability.
