TEMPE, Ariz. — He’s no Angel, Tim Anderson.
An unabashed bat-flipper, a clubhouse brooder, an on-field brawler, the painful public missteps in his personal life, yada yada, all that stuff.
But he’s also a two-time All-Star and former batting champion without a job in the major leagues. Anderson — his career in peril — is on a minor-league contract as a non-roster invitee to Angels camp.
You might be among the many who weren’t aware the White Sox open the season at home against the Angels on March 27. But Anderson being at Rate Field is very far from guaranteed. At 31, he has a mountain to climb if he’s going to make it there.
Wouldn’t it be something, though, if the onetime face of the Sox is wearing “Angels” across his chest when Opening Day arrives on the South Side?
“We’ll talk about that when we make the team,” Anderson said, shrugging his shoulders and putting his palms up, silently adding a “too soon” to his answer.
It’s a different-looking Anderson this spring. He’s sporting a thick, black beard and wearing No. 77 in red. When a player’s number goes up by 70, it’s usually not the best sign, a visitor from the Sun-Times pointed out.
“That’s true,” Anderson said, laughing easily, “but I’m just thankful to be here, grateful all the way down. I got another shot at it. It’s just a little challenge, and I ain’t got nothing to lose.”
Well, nothing other than his life as a big leaguer, but it’s up to him to decide how much that matters. According to Angels manager Ron Washington, Anderson’s mindset is going to mean everything in this process. Anderson believes he has a healthy one.
“Anything good I do is gonna be great, because I ain’t got nothing,” he said. “It just takes me back to when I first came up [to the majors]. Just go play. The scoring card is back to zero.”
What happened to Anderson? He was an All-Star shortstop in 2021 and 2022, before his play went off a cliff. In 2023, he homered once and drove in 25 runs in 123 games, leading the Sox to decline a $14 million option to keep him. In 2024, after signing a one-year, $5 million deal with the Marlins, he hit .214 with no homers over 234 at-bats and didn’t make it to the All-Star break before being released.
Here he is again after more than half a year removed from the game. His body is healthier than it was in his last go-round with the Sox. His wife and daughters were set to join him Thursday, a family he fought to hold on to just as he has his baseball future.
“I just went on a seven-month getaway,” he said. “Cleaned out all the baggage, cleaned out all the bad energy and just learned to get my new [hitting] moves off. The biggest part is just mentally feeling good, believing you’re good.”
Does he believe it?
“Yes, I do,” he said. “Once I got released, I was able to slow it down. When I was in that storm, I was just trying to fight every day to keep a job and fight every day to find my swing. Once I got released, I was able to just, like, slow the brain down, really just get some time to myself and get some time to understand the work I was doing. I’m really understanding a lot better now.”
There’s an opportunity for Anderson with promising young shortstop Zach Neto recovering from November surgery on his right shoulder. It’s unknown whether Neto will be ready to start the season or begin it on the injured list, but whoever is at short almost certainly will have Yoan Moncada — another unfulfilled Sox story — next to him at third base.
Seeing Moncada and Anderson out there together surely would make numbed Sox fans experience a feeling or two.
According to Anderson, a big reason he wanted to be in Angels camp is the 72-year-old Washington, who is best known for his mentoring ways, positivity and infield expertise.
“Yes, I do have something unique to offer him,” Washington said. “I’m going to feed into him everything that I have, because he’s a talented player [and] I’m happy to have that talent in camp. And I’m happy to draw what he has inside of him out, and he wants what he has inside of him out that wasn’t pleasant the past few years.
“He has a new start. Wherever it goes from here on out, he has control of it. And I think as a baseball player, that’s what you want. He has a chance to start all over again in a new place, with new people, and then be impressive from there. And I think he will be.”
Not so long ago, Anderson was a South Side favorite, seemingly the most confident player on the field.
“It made it seem effortless,” Anderson said, “but it was not easy.”
The mountain in front of him is a testament to that.
“I’m still only 31,” he said. “There’s still room to grow, still room to get better, still a window. There still is a window. It may be smaller, but there still is a window.
“It’s in my hands and ain’t nothing but a click away. One click, and I can be right back where I was.”