A few days ago when I was writing about the White Sox's weirdly Romy González-heavy preseason marketing, I left open the possibility that the White Sox were posturing in hopes of solidifying second base with a more certain acquisition.
Unless this is all leverage to get Elvis Andrus to lower his demands to a price Jerry Reinsdorf is willing to pay, it looks like González is Plan A.
Sure enough, Elvis Andrus is indeed back. Jeff Passan broke the news, and Bob Nightengale followed up with the financial terms (one year, $3 million).
Andrus was a good fit for the White Sox's middle infield all along after excelling on the South Side over the final month and a half of the 2022 season. He hit .271/.309/.464 with a whopping nine homers over and 11 stolen bases (in 11 attempts) over 43 games. He was as perfect of a fit as it seemed when the A's released him around the same time Tim Anderson and Leury García hit the injured list last August, and with the Sox having such uncertainty in the middle infield in 2023, it would've been terrific to have him hang around.
The hang-up: If Andrus definitely wanted to find a starting shortstop job somewhere, the White Sox couldn't offer him that. Fortunately for the Sox, the offseason was so shortstop-heavy with Carlos Correa, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson that any team with ambition could find a fixture, versus a stopgap whose late season eruption might be written off as a fluke.
Now the White Sox get to find out how real it was, and if it turned out to be a fluke, the White Sox still needed somebody who forced González and Lenyn Sosa break down the door, rather than be handed a job they weren't ready for. And should Anderson get hurt again, Andrus is a sounder option for the infield's toughest job than González, Sosa or Leury García.
The White Sox's 40-man roster is full, so the announcement may be waiting on a corresponding move.
