What should the Marlins expect from Tim Anderson this season?

On Thursday, amidst the plentiful rumors regarding where he will play in 2024, former Chicago White Sox SS Tim Anderson agreed to terms with the Miami Marlins on a one-year deal worth $5 million, pending physical. Because of how inconsistent Anderson has been in recent years, there are many opinions out there about what kind of player he'll be moving forward.

This deal comes after a poor 2023 for not only Anderson, but the White Sox as a whole. He looked like a shell of his former self and saw career lows in slugging, OPS and home runs. Anderson's .582 OPS was the lowest among all qualified hitters in MLB.

The former All-Star also continued to trend down defensively. His minus-16 defensive runs saved tied for the worst total at his position. One error in particular came against the Marlins themselves on June 10, which allowed for Miami to tie and eventually win in Chicago, as I'm sure most fans remember.

However, even though Anderson had a down year, the Marlins and a few other clubs needed a hole filled at shortstop. Miami made it clear that if he signed, Anderson would be the team's shortstop come Opening Day. Now that we are here, what are some realistic expectations for the 30-year-old?

The biggest factor that will determine whether Anderson reaches his full potential in Miami is his health. A lot of his struggles during not only in 2023, but post All-Star break in 2022, can be attributed to injury. 

In 2022, Anderson dealt with a nagging groin injury that dramatically affected his play once he returned in mid-June. He slashed just .249/.287/.290, but still had good enough numbers pre-injury, which led him to be the starting shortstop for the AL in the All-Star Game. Less than a month later, though, Anderson tore a ligament in his hand, shutting down his 2022 season for good. He only played 79 games.

The White Sox front office believed sidelining him for the rest of the season would be beneficial to the long-term goals that they had envisioned, but 2023 was unfortunately much of the same.

While Anderson did end up playing 123 games in 2023, he accumulated knee, shoulder, forearm and neck-related injuries that certainly slowed him down once again. Combine the injuries with the mess that was the 2023 White Sox season and you get the down year Tim Anderson had. 

A true fresh start could be extremely helpful to get Anderson's career back on track. The issues of the White Sox front office and team chemistry during the 2023 season are well documented, and trading that environment for the culture that Skip Schumaker and his staff have built down in Miami—along with reuniting with his former teammate Jake Burger—might lift some pressure off of Anderson's shoulders. Burger and other former White Sox players have disputed rumors that Anderson himself caused any of those clubhouse problems, including pitcher Luis Giolito, who told NBC Sports Chicago in 2021: "If you were to personify our attitude, kind of what makes us a club, in one guy, I would choose Tim Anderson".

In addition to the culture, Miami's new hitting coach, John Mabry, will continue to preach a contact-first approach, just like Brant Brown of last season. This could be massive for Anderson after his strikeout rate spiked from 15.7% in 2022 to 23.3% in 2023. Even when he's been successful, Anderson has had a habit of chasing too many pitches outside the zone. He has ranked in the 21st percentile or lower in that department during every season of his MLB career, according to Baseball Savant. If Mabry, his staff and new teammates such as Luis Arraez can convince Anderson to lay off more bad pitches, it could potentially elevate his play back to where Miami needs it to be.

If Anderson can stay relatively healthy, embrace his new surroundings and get back to the basics as a hitter in the spacious stadium that loanDepot park is, the Marlins could expect to see a partial return to the player that he once was. I could see a slash line around his career averages of .282/.312/.422, with perhaps a tick up in OBP and a tick down in slugging. The fielding I expect to remain the same, however if Anderson isn't playing through as much pain as last season, I do not see him dropping all the way to minus-16 DRS again. In addition, I fully expect Anderson to take a leadership role in the clubhouse just like he was known for back in Chicago.

What are you expecting out of Tim Anderson in 2024? Let us know!