It took a while, but the Marlins have finally signed a player to a Major League contract (the last team to do so).
Let’s start with the obvious, Tim Anderson hasn’t played his best baseball in nearly two calendar years. Anderson is coming off a year where he finished dead last amongst position players last in rWAR (-2.0), WRC+ (60), wOBA (.260), and slugging percentage (.296). Along with being awful in 2023, Anderson was also really bad in 2022 outside of the first two months.
The good news is that Anderson has shown that he can perform at an elite level and even be the face of a franchise. From 2019-2021, Anderson slashed .322/.349/.495 with a 125 OPS+.
The floor is very low for Tim Anderson right now, so he can only go up from here, right? It’s also good to keep in mind that the mess of a clubhouse/culture in Chicago wasn’t helping Anderson’s performance on the field whatsoever last season, so maybe a change of scenery/fresh start is what Anderson needs to turn things around.
How did we get here?
Marlins fans had thrown around Anderson’s name a lot during last year’s trade deadline, but the Marlins went a different route by trading for Jake Burger. With shortstop being one of the Marlins biggest positional needs this offseason, they traded for Vidal Brujan and Nick Gordon, who both have experience playing shortstop at the Major League level. It was reported earlier this week that the Marlins offered Tim Anderson $2 million, and then he ended up signing for $3 million more than what was initially reported.
Jake Burger publicly advocated for Anderson, saying that he was a great teammate and friend and a guy he always felt he could trust in the clubhouse. Avisail Garcia also played alongside Anderson during the beginning of his career (2016-2018).
The signing isn’t official yet, but Tim Anderson posted a picture of him photoshopped into a Marlins jersey on his Instagram.
Good article! I’m hopeful Anderson can have a good season for us :)