When Did Tim Anderson's Downfall Begin?

Tim Anderson beginning his altercation with Cleveland Guardians star Jose Ramirez, CCed by Liscense 2.0

“Down goes Anderson! Down goes Anderson!” Hearing those words still sends a chill down my spine to this day. Guardians radio announcer Tom Hamilton’s words echoed through the sound waves and felt like something you would hear Joe Anik call during a UFC match. Baseball isn’t really known for its fights, but it has for sure been host to several memorable ones. From Rougned Odor becoming public enemy No.1 in Canada to Tyler Austin storming the Fenway mound towards Joe Kelly, you then had the Tim Anderson-Jose Ramirez brawl.

On August 5th, 2023, in a game between the Guardians and White Sox, Cleveland player Jose Ramirez slid hard and fast into second base to secure an RBI double. White Sox’s Tim Anderson applied a hard tag to Ramirez, which felt excessive and disrespectful to the Cleveland star. After a very brief exchange of words, Anderson dropped his glove and took a fighting stance to initiate a brawl. Ramirez showed Anderson that he had the ‘wild thing’ in him and sent him down next to the second base bag via a hook to the cheek. Both players were ejected as tensions would be higher than the starts over Anderson’s head with several bench clearing altercations between the two American League Central teams occurring over the remainder of the series.

Many consider the embarrassing KO’ing of Anderson as the downfall of what was an all-star career. Tim Anderson’s stats would never be the same as the drop was seen immediately. The month of August of ‘23 saw the right-handed hitter tally a .219 batting average that was followed by a better September, but would eventually lead to his departure from Chi-Town via the Sox declining his option, making him a free agent. 2023 featured Anderson having the lowest isolated power in the AL amongst qualified hitters at .051, while also hitting the highest percentage of grounders at 61.1% in what was a .296 slugging campaign. Anderson was picked up by the Miami Marlins, but would have a short-lived tenure of just 65 games across the 2024 season for a .214 batting average before being DFA’d in early July.

TA7 was then signed by the Angels to a minor league contract, which resulted in him making the opening day roster for LAA. Appearing in just 31 games, Anderson hit just above the Mendoza Line at .205 across 83 at-bats, with a slugging percentage (.241) lower than some of his teammates batting averages. Anderson’s miracle of a career revival in Los Angeles fell short as his lack of production shown with a 0.0 WAR led the Angels to DFA’ing him, leading to an eventual release in late May. Now in August, Tim Anderson is an un-signed free agent.

Anderson’s last 262 games, consisting of 997 at-bats, only saw 2 home runs. This shocking fall from grace is just that – shocking. Anderson, a two-time all-star and Silver Slugger winner, was looking to be the face of White Sox baseball. As all things do though, they come to an end, and for Tim Anderson, his major league career is likely over with the way he has bounced around teams and has yet to regain any footing. Let me remind you, this is a former batting title champ who hit over .300 in every season from 2019-2022, so it’s not like he was just a flash in the pan. 

Since being KO’d in a baseball game-turned bout, Anderson hit .224 in 133 games with a .499 OPS in what will be one of the biggest (and fastest) downfalls in recent baseball history.