3 White Sox starters who could be replaced by major free agent signing

3) White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson and/or third baseman Yoan Moncada

Tim Anderson has been very good for the White Sox in the last few seasons. He has been an All-Star in each of the last two seasons, came in seventh in AL MVP voting and won a Silver Slugger Award in 2020, and in 2019, he won the AL batting title.

But after the White Sox could let him go as they have two team options remaining with him. This year, he has only played in 79 games as he has been on the IL for much of the season. This offseason, the White Sox could decide to let him go just for the sheer fact that, as good as he has been, there are a lot of better shortstops on the market.

This offseason, Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner and Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson will definitely be free agents. Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts and Twins shortstop Carlos Correa both could opt out of the rest of their contracts with their teams (and likely will).

Since 2019, here are the top shortstops in baseball by wRC+ with a minimum of 1,500 plate appearances. Bold indicates that the player will be or could be a free agent.

• 1. Xander Bogaerts, 136 wRC+
• 2. Trea Turner, 135
• 3. Carlos Correa, 131
• 4. Bo Bichette, 127
• 5. Corey Seager, 126
• 6. Marcus Semien, 123
• 7. Tim Anderson, 123
• 13. Dansby Swanson, 103

By fWAR, here are the top eight shortstops since 2019.

• Turner, 19.6 fWAR
• Francisco Lindor, 18.2
• Bogaerts, 17.8
• Semien, 17.0
• Correa, 15.1
• Story, 13.6
• Anderson, 13.6
• Swanson, 13.3

Swanson is the only quintet of free agents that has a lower wRC+ and fWAR than Anderson. Anderson is also the second oldest of the quintet (Bogaerts is older and Turner is a week younger. Correa is the youngest of them).

Yoan Moncada has also not been very good at third base this year. He is owed a lot over the next few seasons but the White Sox could keep Anderson and sign one of the other shortstops and move him over to the third base.

In other words, if the White Sox really want to make a big splash this offseason, they could do it this offseason and they could have openings in those respective areas. They also have the defensive versatility to be able to do it as well.