The Chicago White Sox are in a very interesting spot with their roster. There are a lot of players on the team that have been very good and borderline elite in the past but had tough years in 2022. As a result of those struggles this past season, they only ended up being an 81-81 team.
That is not even close to being good enough since they came into the year thinking that they can make a deep run in the postseason. At a minimum, winning a playoff series was on the mind. Winning the American League Central felt like a given.
One of the biggest reasons that they failed to meet these expectations is that they didn't have Tim Anderson available a lot. He is one of the three best players but was shut down in August because of hand surgery.
As a result, he only played in 79 games. In those games, he had a slash line of .301/.339/.396 for an OPS of .734. He had 6 home runs, 25 RBIs, and 50 runs scored. Those are great stats but we are used to seeing better power numbers from Anderson as the leadoff man. All of this gave him a 1.4 WAR.
Although his power was down slightly while he was healthy, he was the starting shortstop for the American League All-Stars in July. It was a really good season that he was putting together before he was injured. From that moment on, he didn't return for the rest of the season.
If the White Sox didn't blow their chances at the division with a couple of weeks left, they would have probably brought Anderson back in right before the playoffs. That wasn't needed obviously so he should be more than ready by the time spring training rolls around.
2022 Final Grade: C
Tim Anderson needs to stay healthy for the Chicago White Sox in 2023.
Tim Anderson gets a C for the season for a few reasons. For one, it isn't higher because he missed more than 100 games in total. He also had a few suspensions in there as well which probably should get cleaned up just a little bit.
He isn't lower because when he did play he was amazing. He started off rough with a few errors but there is no doubt that he is an amazing shortstop that is well deserving of recognition. Don't be surprised if it is an A+ following the 2023 season (regardless of how the White Sox do).
Anderson is not going to be one that takes what happened in 2022 lightly. He is going to want to get back out there and prove all the doubters wrong. It might have just been a fluky year with injuries and bad luck but now they have to go out there and change the narrative. Anderson will lead that charge.