With Josh Donaldson on the way to Toronto and rumors of the Athletics cleaning house, Jeff Samardzija has been mentioned in various potential trade scenarios involving teams like the Braves, Red Sox, and White Sox. One of the names batted around and rumored to be attractive to Oakland is White Sox prospect Tim Anderson.
Chicago’s second overall prospect, Anderson, was a first-round pick in 2013 and is seen as Chicago’s shortstop of the future. With Samardzija becoming a free agent after this upcoming season, the White Sox would likely need to be promised an extension to give up one of their top minor leaguers.
With Jed Lowrie being a free agent and the in-season trade of Addison Russell to the Cubs, Oakland has no starting shortstop for next season. Anderson won’t help with that hole, but he could allow them to trade some of their infield depth in the minors to address other positions. If acquired, Anderson would give the Athletics three excellent prospects at shortstop, the other two being Daniel Robertson and the recently-acquired Franklin Barreto.
The good thing for Oakland is you could never have too much talent, especially at a premier position like shortstop, which makes Anderson a strong acquisition. Anderson is arguably a rawer prospect than Robertson and Barreto on the defensive end and the former is certainly more disciplined at the plate.
The key for Anderson is getting as much time on the field as possible and becoming consistent on defensive end. He committed 34 errors this past season with a .910 fielding percentage after having 19 errors and a .934 fielding percentage in 2013. He’s still young so his errors may be correctable, but he could end up moving to second base or center field in the future.
Anderson was out nearly two months with a fractured right wrist this past season, but has produced when healthy.
His production at the plate has been solid so far. The 21-year old played 68 games at Class A, batting .297 with a .323 OBP and .795 OPS. Add in five games in Rookie-A ball and ten games in Double-A ball and Anderson had a total of 104 hits, including 21 doubles this past year.
The issue with the young shortstop is his lack of pitch recognition. He had 160 strikeouts in 663 at-bats over two years in comparison with only 32 walks. For an Oakland organization who values pitch recognition, getting on base, and patience at the plate, a five-percent walk rate may not be appealing. The hope is that his compact swing, speed, and athleticism will allow the young shortstop to continue to progress and experience and coaching can fix the holes in his swing.
Overall, Anderson has the tools to be an above-average hitter with a .285 batting average and gap power. He lacks the power to hit 15+ home runs, but his speed is what will allow him to thrive in the future. With 24 stolen bases in only 68 games in Class A, he should be able to consistently approach 30+ steals on every level if he can get on base at a respectable rate. Whether or not Oakland believes that’s enough of a sample size to trade a player of Samardzija’s caliber remains to be seen, but there is no question the potential is there for Anderson to succeed in the future.