White Sox’s Tim Anderson to miss 2-4 weeks with sprained knee

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson will miss two to four weeks after spraining his left knee in Monday’s game against the Minnesota Twins, Chicago announced Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Chicago placed Anderson on the 10-day injured list and recalled infielder Lenyn Sosa from Triple-A Charlotte in a corresponding move.
• Anderson, 29, is batting .298 with 14 hits and four RBIs in 11 games this season

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

How did Anderson get injured?

Anderson sustained the knee injury during a rundown play in the fourth inning of Chicago’s 4-3 win over the Twins on Monday. With runners on first and second base, Minnesota’s Michael A. Taylor hit a routine grounder to third baseman Hanser Alberto. As Matt Wallner was caught in a rundown between second and third, Alberto chased Wallner before throwing to second for the forceout.

Second baseman Elvis Andrus then threw the ball toward third, but Alberto caught it and threw it to Anderson. The shortstop crouched down to grab the ball, and Wallner slid into Anderson near third base. Anderson clutched his knee in pain momentarily, and although he decided to stay in the game, he was later removed in the sixth.

“He felt a little bit of pain when it happened,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said after the game. “He felt like he could play through it and it stiffened up on him a little bit.”

Alberto took some blame for the rundown play where Anderson got hurt: “That was poor communication between me and TA. Because he called for the play after I threw to Elvis, so I should have gotten out of the way. But it happened fast.” — Fegan

What this means for the White Sox

The White Sox have a fairly proven backup shortstop in Andrus, who shined just last year while filling for an injured Anderson both defensively and batting out of the lead-off spot. For much of the offseason, the coaching staff expressed faith in Romy Gonzalez’s ability to hold down the second base job if called upon, and the just-recalled Sosa was hitting in Triple-A Charlotte like he planned on forcing his way into the mix sooner than later.

But this is Anderson, the MLB leader in batting average since 2019, and the catalyst of the White Sox offense since his breakout. Since returning to playoff contention in 2020, the Sox are 38 games over .500 when Anderson plays and five games under when he doesn’t. Already missing Eloy Jiménez and with Yoán Moncada slowed by a sore back, makes the always untenable loss of Anderson all the more challenging for a team that has started out 5-6 despite averaging the seventh-most runs per game in baseball.

There is some solace that this is not something that should keep Anderson out much past the start of May. After major injuries suffered during normal baseball acts like swinging and running prompted the White Sox to overhaul some staffing and review training practices, this setback was more of a freak accident than anything. The 2021 AL Central-winning team weathered an Anderson absence of this length without collapsing, and Jiménez and Moncada could both be in the lineup by the end of the week to shoulder some of the offensive burden. But what the White Sox most needed to bounce back from last year was a healthy season with their core players, and they’re not getting that. — Fegan

What they’re saying

Anderson was very visibly frustrated when speaking about the injury Tuesday.

“It’s so frustrating. You do everything right to try to prevent from creating injury and just something I couldn’t control,” he said. “I just have to roll with it.”

The shortstop said it “kind of took a little while” to feel the sprain.

“I felt something weird but I didn’t know exactly what it was. It was a little discomfort and I kind of played one or two more innings. I started getting stiff and I just decided to come out.”

Pedro Grifol was asked if he blamed Matt Wallner for the slide that injured Anderson.

“That was on us. That wasn’t on them,” Grifol said. “It was a poorly executed rundown. He did what he had to do. Unfortunately it cost us Timmy on the (IL) but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.”

Required reading

(Photo: Quinn Harris / Getty)