The White Sox have claimed Lars Anderson off of waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks, bringing the team’s 40-man roster back to the allotted 40. Anderson is only 25, so you can’t officially call him a failed prospect, but he’s also yet to produce much of anything after being built up as a top prospect, so in non-official terms, feel free to call him a failed prospect if you like.
White Sox claiming Lars Anderson something something. (Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports)
Lars (you must admit it is a slick name, at least) hasn’t had much time in the bigs to live up to his former status as #1 prospect in the Red Sox system but there was a time when he was promising. Anderson slugged over .500 at High A and AA in 2008 as a 20 year old and it looked like he was on his way to figuring out a path to the big leagues. Though that has been his best season as a professional to date, he did technically figure that path, appearing in a total of 30 major league games from 2010-2012 with the Red Sox, mostly of the September call-up variety. The .188 slugging pct. he’s accrued isn’t terribly impressive, but I guess he’s only 25 so what the heck, right?
The White Sox really wanted a left-handed bat, it seems. They’ve now got Anderson, though with very light defensive value I find it hard to see him making his way to the active roster without a little help from the injury gods incapacitating Paul Konerko or Adam Dunn for a time.
There is the line of thought that you don’t truly know what a big league player can do unless he gets regular playing time, regardless of what he’s shown in brief glimpses or in the minor leagues. I’m just saying, that line of thought exists. Somewhere.