Tim Anderson builds his MVP case

The White Sox shortstop has taken another step on his journey to stardom

Much of the airtime during the bottom of the third inning of Monday's White Sox-Tigers game was taken up by the White Sox broadcast team of Steve Stone and Jason Benetti waxing poetic about Tim Anderson. 

"He can beat you with his bat, he knew that. He can beat you with his legs, he knew that. But now he's beating you with his glove and with his smarts, and that has stardom written all over it," Stone said after Anderson snuck up on an unexpecting runner on second which allowed Gio González to pick him off. 

"It feels in a lot of ways, he's unstoppable at times," Benetti said. 

It's hard to argue with Benetti, especially at that moment. Anderson's wise defensive play followed the second game in as many weeks that had been led off by an Anderson home run. TA followed up his first-inning blast with another home run later in the game, coming on the 10th pitch of his next at-bat. Similarly, Anderson worked yesterday's victim, Matt Boyd, in a similar at-bat for the first of his leadoff home runs against the lefthander a little over a week ago. 

"Unstoppable" is a good word to use when it comes to Anderson. The 27-year-old is piecing together a strong follow-up to a dominant 2019 season that saw him win the American League's batting title. And off the field, Anderson and his wife Bria have become faces of service in the underserved neighborhoods of Chicago. 

It was reasonable to wonder whether Anderson would be able to provide an encore for such a successful campaign in 2019, but the ascending face of the White Sox has continued to rise. Now he finds himself in the MVP discussion through a quarter of this shortened season. 

Anderson's 1.054 OPS places him ahead of Mike Trout and right behind Mookie Betts among baseball's leaders. More importantly, it underscores the all-around value Anderson is bringing to the White Sox lineup on a regular basis. It is also Anderson demonstrating development in one of the key areas needed to.

Anderson is walking at a 5.4% rate, almost triple his walk rate from a year ago. Walk rate has been a primary concern about Anderson since he reached the big leagues in 2016, and while a walk rate still short of 6% is not going to top any walk charts, it underscores the development in Anderson's game. 

The ability to walk and get on base is not the only area where Anderson has shown impressive progression this season. TA has begun to improve defensively, which was another concern for those waiting for him to blossom into a superstar. 

Anderson routinely makes plays deep in the outfield that put his speed, big arm, and feel for the game on a regular basis. When he entered the league, Anderson was prone to errors and the occasional awareness blunder. Now, as was on display Tuesday night, Anderson plays the shortstop position like a savvy veteran, making heads-up plays and flashing weekly web gems. Anderson appears ready to take the reins of infield captain from José Abreu. 

Anderson's statistics stack up to some of the premier players in the league. He has the sort of all-around impact that the best players in baseball have. This is especially true given that Anderson plays the premium position of shortstop. 

But where Anderson truly stands out on the field is not in his individual box score, but in the numbers of the other eight players in the lineup when Anderson is not playing. 

During a six-game stretch from August 5-10 in which Anderson missed every game the White Sox offense slogged its way to a total of 11 runs. The team also recorded double-digit strikeouts during all but two of those games. 

The offense, in essence, had ground to a halt.

When Anderson returned, the offense came to life — including 15 runs in the final two games of a series in Detroit in which the Sox scored only one run in the game before Anderson rejoined the lineup. Anderson's return brought stability to a lineup that appeared in danger of digging a hole it could not recover from. 

Anderson's energy, outspokenness, and penchant for flashy plays could remind some fans of another shortstop playing across town. 

Javier Baez captured national attention in a similar fashion two years ago. The Cubs shortstop finished second place in MVP voting to Christian Yelich that season and cemented himself as the face of Cubs baseball. 

Anderson has experienced a similar rise to fame and now finds himself in a similar position to enter his name into the MVP discussion, just as Baez did in 2018. 

Some will argue that Anderson's numbers are inflated due to the games he missed earlier this month with a strained groin. But in a 60-game format, the likes of which has never been seen before, small sample sizes are more important than ever. In basketball, where they play 82 games, any players having the type of season Anderson is for the White Sox through 20 games would have been firmly mentioned as an MVP candidate already. 

It is unlikely Anderson ultimately wins the MVP award. But his impact on the White Sox is obvious, and should the team begin to win more games due to the Anderson effect, its easy to imagine a world where he's is in the MVP discussion. 

With a 60-game season and the White Sox positioned to make a run at an expanded playoff field, the words of another beloved Chicago MVP come to mind. "Why can't I be MVP of the league?" Derrick Rose famously spoke those words before embarking on a campaign that crowned him the youngest MVP in league history. 

Ironically enough, Anderson echoed those very words at this year's SoxFest.

Anderson's play has kept his team afloat in the first quarter of the 2020 MLB sprint. He has become the face of the franchise in the community and on the field. So as Anderson continues to make his case, why can't he win the MVP?