White Sox’s Tim Anderson gets three-game suspension for making contact with umpire, appeals ruling

Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson was given a three-game suspension for making contact with an umpire during Friday night’s 7-3 loss against the Oakland Athletics.

The suspension will be on hold as Anderson appeals the ruling, which came out just before Saturday’s game against Oakland where he had two singles. 

Anderson was ejected in the seventh inning after arguing with home plate umpire Nick Mahrley over a strike call that appeared to be high. After being thrown out of the game, Anderson approached the umpire and appeared to make contact with him.

WHITE SOX’S TIM ANDERSON BUMPS UMPIRE AFTER EJECTION: ‘I DIDN’T SEE ANY CONTACT THAT I KNOW’ 

Mahrley seemed to motion that Anderson made contact with him during the verbal altercation, but manager Tony La Russa, who was also ejected for his involvement, saw it differently.

“I know I think I saw the umpire moving forward quite a bit, which they’re taught not to do that,” he said at the time. “I didn’t see any contact that I know.”

La Russa echoed that sentiment after the suspension was announced. 

“Did you see how the interaction happened?” he said Saturday. “The way we see it, there’s an argument to be made that the umpire didn’t move back, he was moving forward as well.”

Anderson declined to address the suspension over the weekend, but this isn’t his first run-in with the league office.

He missed the first two games of 2022 as punishment for making contact with an umpire during a bench-clearing incident last September. He was also suspended a game in April after directing an obscene gesture toward fans, but that ban was overturned on appeal.

Anderson had one hit in Sunday’s game as the White Sox won the three-game series against the A’s.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.