Longtime White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson was back in Chicago on Thursday as a member of the Miami Marlins, and was not totally diplomatic about his time with his former team.
Anderson was in town for the Marlins’ game against the Cubs, which gave the Chicago media the chance to ask him about his exit from the White Sox. Anderson suggested the White Sox had refused to offer him the contract extension he had asked for, and implied that the White Sox leaned on him too much to provide all of their offense.
Tim Anderson spoke to media here at Wrigley. He said he asked for extensions “year after year,” so he sensed his time with the White Sox would end. He is OK with being free of the pressure of ‘As TA goes, so go the White Sox’
“Because it takes a whole team”
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) April 18, 2024
Anderson admitted some of his own personal choices helped derail his career in Chicago, but also suggested the team did not have the “right guys to go out and compete” despite their initial success.
Tim Anderson is back in Chicago with Mia. Was asked why things didn't work out after '21: “A lot of my decisions off the field kind of interrupted a lot of things…We understood that. Its hard to win when you don’t have the right guys to go out and compete. And want to win it.”
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) April 18, 2024
Anderson appeared to be on the path to stardom around 2020, when he was regularly hitting .300 with power while playing for a team that won 93 games and a division title in 2021. The power disappeared starting in 2022, and he hit just .245 with one home run in 123 games last season. His infamous on-field fight with Jose Ramirez, along with his bizarre reaction to the aftermath of it, did not help his cause either, and the White Sox parted ways with him at the end of the year.
Rumor also had it that Anderson clashed with teammates, but that also goes along with claims that the White Sox had a terrible team culture. Anderson’s comments do not exactly refute that, though some may view his comments as him ducking responsibility for how things went wrong toward the end of his tenure.
