White Sox’ Tim Anderson: ‘I have to be better. I will be better’

DENVER — Talking publicly for the first time since a clash with Jose Ramirez near second base that sparked a nasty brawl in Cleveland two weeks ago, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson vowed to “be better” as a leader by example and to keep working to be the player he has been in the past.

“You go through things to get to the other thing,” Anderson said Friday, speaking in the visitors’ dugout at Coors Field before serving the first game of a suspension that Major League Baseball reduced to five games Thursday. “I’ve got to be better. I have to be better. I will be better. [I’ll] keep working, and I won’t take anything for granted. Keep trying to better myself as a whole, on and off the field. And just keep pushing.”

Anderson is struggling this year in his worst season on the field, performing well below the standards he set as an All-Star and batting champion. He also has dealt with family strife and has been a shell of himself in the clubhouse. 

In recent years, his energy and upbeat voice were apparent. But this season, with the Sox struggling mightily on the field and with a leadership void in the clubhouse, he has quietly kept to himself much more.

“I’ve always tried to lead by example, but I haven’t given a good example,” Anderson said. “So that definitely is not at a good point. I come every day to try to better myself and the guys around me at work. Pretty sure this organization knows what type of person I am, what I bring to the table and how I work.”

On Friday, he sat in his corner of the clubhouse laughing with teammates Touki Toussaint, Seby Zavala, Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn and first-base coach Daryl Boston. Perhaps he was turning a corner.

“[Getting] back to the type of player that I am, the type of player that I have been,” Anderson said. “Keep working, get back in the lab and get the body right and work on my swing and try to be the best that I can be each day, every day.

“If you ain’t going through anything, then you’re not growing. I just understand that it is a lot, but it has to be working toward something great. Being at a point like this, I’m just going to keep going, keep going. Keep hustling, and see where it leads me. Hopefully it’s somewhere near greatness.”

First-year manager Pedro Grifol hasn’t seen the great Anderson this season, but he has seen him arrive early on a daily basis to work at his craft and fight through his slump.

“The struggle he’s had, it showed him and me how hard he loves this, respects this,” Grifol said Friday. “If you don’t respect the game, you don’t work as hard as he does.

“Sometimes things happen for a reason. Adversity is education.”

Grifol said the sprained knee Anderson suffered in April probably altered his mechanics.

“He is a good hitter — it’s just not happening right now,” Grifol said. “You don’t just lose that from one day to the next. You don’t do what he’s done for 4½, five years and then have an off year and all of a sudden you were a good hitter, at that age [30]. He has to make adjustments, feel the mechanics in his swing that he wants and have a little success and run with it again.”

Anderson apologized for his actions in Cleveland in an Instagram post Thursday.

“It was heartfelt. That’s how he feels, and I’m right there with him,” Grifol said.

Said Anderson: “I just wanted to say what I believe and hopefully say it well with whoever received it. But I definitely wanted to be real and authentic about it. Accountability. Apologize. A little bit of everything. The biggest thing was really just be real with it.”