The Chicago White Sox have promoted prized top prospect Tim Anderson to the major league level this morning. The White Sox also designated veteran shortstop Jimmy Rollins for assignment. The moves come just 24 hours after a series of surprising roster moves yesterday, and just 12 hours after the White Sox put together a stellar first night of the 2016 Major League Baseball first-year player draft.
The 22-year-old shortstop from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is the top rated prospect in the White Sox organization. Entering today, Anderson was hitting .304 in Triple-A this season. Anderson compiled four homers, 20 RBIs, and 39 runs over 55 games this season with the Charlotte Knights.
General manager Rick Hahn said recently that the original plan was to have Anderson play a full year at the Triple-A level, but that Anderson’s play “has forced our hand to change up the time frame somewhat.” Hahn did not specify at the time just how much the plan had changed, but we see it now.
The White Sox have refused to stop making headlines over the past couple days, and this is the biggest move yet.
The veteran shortstop Rollins was hitting just .221 with two home runs and eight RBIs in the starting role for the majority of this season. We have seen Robin Ventura start second-year shortstop Tyler Saladino in place of Rollins often over the past two weeks in an attempt to provide some spark to an offense severely in need of such.
The White Sox made a series of roster moves yesterday afternoon, including designating struggling starting pitcher Mat Latos for assignment, promoting rookie starting pitcher Tyler Danish to the major leagues, and signing a left-handed hitter in Justin Morneau.
The last 24 hours have proved that Hahn is not going to stand pat while the White Sox grossly underperform their way into the offseason again in 2016. The White Sox are sitting at .500 after a sizzling 23-10 start to the season just one month ago, and if they don’t start performing we should expect the moves to continue, including possibly manager Robin Ventura.
Stay tuned — things appear to be heating up on the south side of Chicago.
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