Tim Anderson made a good first impression.
Anderson has appeared in just 99 major league games, totaling 431 plate appearances, but the 23-year-old shortstop agreed to a six-year, $25 million contract extension with the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
According to USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale, the deal is the most lucrative contract ever given to a player with less than one year of major league service time. Anderson accrued just 115 days of service last season after being called up by the White Sox.
Anderson wouldn’t have been arbitration eligible until at least 2020, and he wasn’t scheduled to hit free agency before 2023. The reported deal gives the White Sox cost certainty for player they obviously consider to be a big part of their future, though, and it also gives them control over two would-be free agent seasons. By then, Anderson could be a valuable regular (or even a big league star), at which point the contract could look like a bargain, even if it now represents a calculated risk given the level of uncertainty that comes with handsomely paying a player with so little major league experience.
Anderson, a first-round draft pick in 2013, hit .283 with nine home runs, 30 RBI, 10 stolen bases and a .306 on-base percentage in 2016. He turns 24 in June.
MLB.com’s Scott Merkin was the first to report Monday that Anderson and the White Sox were working on a multiyear deal. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first reported Tuesday morning that the sides had agreed to a deal.
Thumbnail photo via Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports Images
