White Sox make 11 roster moves, beat Twins in 10 innings

Tim Anderson

Andrew Benintendi's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted the White Sox to a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

It took 30 games, but the Sox (9-21) have finally won two in a row for the first time in the 2023 season. But the biggest news of the day came during the afternoon, when the club announced a series of 11 roster moves.

In the 40-plus years I've been following this team, I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. I guess you might say it's indicative of the fact that things have not been going well. 

Let's take a look at the comings and goings.

Who's here?

• Tim Anderson (sprained knee) was activated off the 10-day injured list. He played shortstop and batted leadoff Tuesday night for the first time since suffering the injury April 10. The Sox went 3-15 during his 18-game absence.
• Hanser Alberto (groin strain) was activated off the 10-day injured list. He appeared in Tuesday's game as a late-inning defensive replacement and scored the winning run as the ghost runner in the 10th inning.
• Veteran right-hander Alex Colome had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte. Colome served as the Sox closer in 2019-20. He pitched two-thirds of an inning Tuesday night and gave up a game-tying solo home run to Minnesota's Nick Gordon.
• Outfielder Billy Hamilton had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte. This is also his second stint with the Sox. He was a member of the 2021 AL Central championship team. He appeared in Tuesday's game as a pinch runner in the ninth inning. He stole a base, but was stranded at third.
• Pitcher Sammy Peralta had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte. The 24-year-old has never pitched in the majors. He figures to be deployed as the second lefty out of the bullpen -- or maybe the first lefty, given how bad Aaron Bummer has pitched this season.

Who's gone?

• Veteran relief pitcher Joe Kelly was placed on the paternity list. This move was expected Tuesday.
• Right fielder Oscar Colas was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. The decision to give the 24-year-old rookie a starting job proved premature, as Colas batted .211/.265/.276 with only one home run in 25 games. He'll need to work on his plate discipline before he can return to the majors. Once again, right field looks like a sore spot for the Sox.
• Second baseman Lenyn Sosa was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. The 23-year-old is not ready for the big leagues at this time. He batted .151/.167/.245 in 16 games with one homer. With Anderson's return, Elvis Andrus moves from shortstop back to second base.
• Utility player Romy Gonzalez was placed on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. A fake injury? You decide. Gonzalez is batting .139/.139/.194, and he's struggled at every position he's played defensively. Had he been optioned to Charlotte, no one would have batted an eye.
• Veteran reliever Jake Diekman was designated for assignment. The lefty was the only acquisition made by the Sox at last season's trade deadline, and he was a disaster. He had a 6.52 ERA in 26 games with the Sox in 2022. This year, he was 0-1 with a 7.94 ERA in 13 games. The evidence suggests the 36-year-old's career might be over.
• Minor league pitcher Franklin German was designated for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster for some of the additions noted above.

How much impact will these moves make? My thinking is that Anderson is the only one that moves the needle, but it's clear that Sox brass is shaking it up to try to save this sagging season. 

What else is there to do right now?

White Sox trim spring training roster by 9

The White Sox on Sunday announced a series of roster moves that trim their spring training roster by nine players.

Catcher Carlos Perez and infielder Lenyn Sosa were optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. Infielders Bryan Ramos and Jose Rodriguez were optioned to Double-A Birmingham. Outfielder Yoelquis Cespedes and pitchers Edgar Navarro, Nate Fisher, Andrew Perez and Sammy Peralta were optioned to minor league camp.

Most notable here is the optioning of Sosa, who saw some big league time in 2022 and was mentioned at one point as a possible starting second baseman.

The 23-year-old was 2 for 15 in the Cactus League with two RBIs. The good news is he didn't strike out in any plate appearances. The bad news is he also did not walk. He'll always be a free swinger, but a little more time in Triple-A should help Sosa make better swing decisions at the plate.

Ramos, a 21-year-old third baseman, is the No. 2 prospect in the Sox system. He had a good showing in camp, going 7 for 19 with a homer and five RBIs. Rodriguez is also a top-10 prospect in the Sox system, and he'll start at second base for Birmingham.

One wonders whether shortstop Colson Montgomery, the Sox's top prospect, will also end up in Double-A Birmingham. That would be an interesting starting infield for the Barons.

Elvis Andrus signs 1-year deal with White Sox

Elvis Andrus

Elvis Andrus is back with the White Sox on a one-year deal worth $3 million, according to reports.

The 34-year-old is a veteran of 1,947 games and 14 seasons, but he's never played a position other than shortstop or designated hitter. For the 2023 Sox, he is expected to be the starting second baseman.

Andrus joined the Sox on Aug. 19, 2022, after being released by the Oakland Athletics and after Tim Anderson suffered a season-ending hand injury. 

In 43 games with Chicago, Andrus played better than he had in years, batting .271/.309/.464 with nine home runs, 28 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. In fact, Andrus hit more homers last season with the Sox than he did in 106 games with Oakland (8). He also stole more bases than he did with the A's (7).

It's also notable that Andrus was an asset defensively, and an excellent base runner. Those two attributes are rare on the current Sox roster, and that made his competence in those areas stand out even more.

There are two key questions surrounding this signing. First, was Andrus' late-season surge in 2022 a dead-cat bounce from a guy looking for his next contract, or was it a sign that he still has some useful baseball left? Second, can he make the transition to second base after years and years of playing shortstop?

Clearly, other teams were not sold on Andrus as a starting shortstop. To be fair, the free agent market was saturated this offseason with high-level shortstops -- Carlos Correa, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson -- and that made it difficult for Andrus to find a job.

His best path to a regular spot in a lineup was to come back to the Sox as a second baseman, a position that is a sore spot on the South Side. Does anybody out there believe the internal candidates -- Romy Gonzalez, Lenyn Sosa or Leury Garcia -- can play above replacement level, or even at replacement level? I'm skeptical. 

Andrus raises the floor at second base, and he also provides injury insurance for Anderson, who is usually good for at least one stint on the injured list per season. We know Andrus can still handle shortstop, and we know Andrus is likely to stay healthy -- he's appeared in 145 or more games in 12 of his 14 seasons in the majors.

Can Andrus handle second base defensively? I'm going to say he can, because the working theory is always, "If you can play shortstop, you can play anywhere else." 

At this point, there's not much of a downside here. Do I wish the Sox would have found a better option for second base earlier in the offseason? Yes, no question. But given that there were apparently no trades to be made, bringing back Andrus is better than doing nothing. After all, what sense does it make to go with such unproven internal options in the middle of what is supposed to be a "contention window"?

Here's a look at how the Sox lineup could look on Opening Day, if everyone makes it through spring training healthy:

1. Anderson, SS
2. Andrew Benintendi, LF
3. Luis Robert, CF
4. Eloy Jimenez, DH
5. Yasmani Grandal, C
6. Andrew Vaughn, 1B
7. Yoan Moncada, 3B
8. Oscar Colas, RF
9. Andrus, 2B
   

Some more free agent signings to catch up on ...

Here's a look at some recent free agent signings:

• Michael Conforto, San Franciso Giants, 2 years, $36 million
• Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers, 2 years, $34 million
• Corey Kluber, Boston Red Sox, 1 year, $10 million
• Jean Segura, Miami Marlins, 2 years, $17 million
• Drew Smyly, Cubs, 2 years, $19 million
• Taylor Rogers, San Francisco Giants, 3 years, $33 million

Segura's signing takes the most prominent remaining free agent option at second base off the board, which caused White Sox Twitter to melt down for approximately the 23rd time this offseason.

You can't really blame the fans, though, since the internal "options" being sold to them by the front office include Romy Gonzalez, Lenyn Sosa and ... gulp, Leury Garcia.

Gonzalez has not shown that he's good enough to start for a team that expects to contend. Sosa has promise, but he's simply not ready yet. The big fear is this road leads back to Garcia. Again.

San Francisco's signing of Rogers had a ripple effect, too, as the Giants designated second baseman Tommy La Stella for assignment to make room for the veteran pitcher on the roster.

Thus, La Stella is a free agent, and some Sox fans are talking about him as a possible option. Buyer beware. 

Injuries limited La Stella to 60 games last season, when he accumulated -0.7 WAR. He's entering his age-34 season, and it's not unreasonable to believe his days as a useful player are past. He doesn't merit anything other than a minor league contract, if that. There's a reason the Giants let him go.

White Sox reportedly signing Elvis Andrus in attempt to fill shortstop hole

Elvis Andrus

There is nothing official yet, but I trust ESPN's Jeff Passan when he says the White Sox are signing free-agent shortstop Elvis Andrus.

The Sox are in trouble at that position. Tim Anderson is out for at least another month after having surgery on his left hand. Danny Mendick, who filled in capably in late May and early June when Anderson was out with a groin strain, is done for the season with a torn ACL. And Leury Garcia is also on the injured list with a back strain.

That leaves Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa to play shortstop. Gonzalez is a Quad-A player. Sosa is a 22-year-old prospect who needs more reps at Triple-A. He's talented, but not ready for the majors.

Enter Andrus, who will turn 34 next Friday. The Oakland Athletics just released him because he was approaching the amount of plate appearances that would automatically cause his $15 million option for 2023 to vest. Oakland is rebuilding, and would rather play younger players, so it's in the interest of the both the A's and Andrus to part ways.

By no means is Andrus the cure for what ails the Sox, but he'll provide league-average play at shortstop -- an upgrade over both Gonzalez and Sosa -- and an upgrade over Garcia if and when he returns.

Andrus is batting .237/.301/.373 with eight home runs and 24 doubles this season. No, that .674 OPS doesn't thrill anyone, but again, it's about competence. And at the very least, Andrus is a good defender who will solidify the left side of the infield in the short run.

According to Passan's report, Andrus will join the Sox in time for an important three-game series with the Cleveland Guardians that starts Friday.

The Sox are limping into Cleveland, having been destroyed 21-5 by the Houston Astros on Thursday. After taking the first two games of the four-game set against the league-best Astros, the Sox lost the final two games of that series to fall to 61-58.

They are 2.5 games out of first heading into the weekend.

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson out six weeks with hand injury

Tim Anderson

Has anyone heard of a sagittal band before? 

Before today, that term was foreign to me. But White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson has a sagittal band tear on the middle finger of his left hand. He will undergo surgery Thursday, and the Sox placed him on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday. He will be out for six weeks.

This could be the death blow for whatever hopes the Sox have of winning the American League Central Division, but then again, Anderson has been poor lately.

In the 39 games since he returned from his last injury -- a groin strain suffered Memorial Day weekend against the Cubs -- Anderson has hit .249/.287/.290 with just one home run. That's pretty much replacement-level performance.

By way of comparison, Leury Garcia has the exact same slugging percentage over his past 39 games (coming into Tuesday's doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals). Garcia's slash line over that time period: .237/.273/.290.

Yeah, it's pretty bleak.

The best we can hope for is that, somehow, Sox manager Tony La Russa decides to give rookie Lenyn Sosa a shot to play shortstop on a regular basis during Anderson's absence, and that Sosa makes a quick adjustment to a new level.

To be honest, the bar isn't hard to clear. All he has to do is slug .300, right?

Sosa hit his first career home run Tuesday night, giving the Sox an early lead in an eventual 3-2 victory over the Royals in Game 2 of the doubleheader. Kansas City won Game 1, 4-2, so in true Sox fashion, the South Siders played .500 baseball for the day.

For the season, the Sox are 56-54. Through the first 14 games of this 19-game stretch against losing teams, the Sox are 8-6. That's decent, but not the big run the optimists were hoping for. The Sox are still 2.0 games back of the Minnesota Twins, pending Minnesota's late result against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I was thinking the Sox really needed to go 12-7 or 13-6 during this stretch. That is still mathematically possible, but not likely. The Sox have two games remaining in Kansas City, before a three-game weekend series at home against the Detroit Tigers.

On the current road trip through Texas and Kansas City, the Sox are 3-3. (.500 again!) And in those six games, they've scored only 17 runs. 

Yes, offense is still the problem. The Sox needed GM Rick Hahn to acquire two bats at the trade deadline. Instead, he got none, and with Anderson out, it's fair to say the Sox are playing three bats short.

Even in a weak division, good luck with that.