MARCH 26: The Rays have placed Anderson on the 60-day injured list and added righty Andrew Kittredge to their 40-man roster, per a team announcement. Kittredge had an opt-out for the end of camp in the minor league deal he signed with the Rays, but he’ll stay put. He contributed 111 1/3 innings of 4.93 ERA/3.90 SIERA pitching with the Rays from 2017-20.
MARCH 25: The Rays’ bullpen received terrible news Thursday: Right-hander Nick Anderson suffered a partial tear of his elbow ligament and will likely be out until past the All-Star break, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Surgery has not been recommended at this point.
Considering how much the reigning American League champion Rays lean on their bullpen, the loss of Anderson for at least a few months is an especially troubling development. Anderson has been absolutely lights-out dating back to his 2019 debut with Miami, which traded him to Tampa Bay before that season’s deadline.
Now 30 years old, the hard-throwing Anderson was a 32nd-round pick of the Brewers in 2012 who spent time in independent ball before he broke out in the bigs. Anderson owns a stellar 2.77 ERA/2.14 SIERA with a 42.2 percent strikeout rate and a 6.5 percent walk rate across 81 1/3 innings. While Anderson did miss time last year with forearm issues, he dominated over 16 1/3 frames with a measly 0.55 ERA and similarly jaw-dropping strikeout and walk percentages of 44.8 and 5.2, respectively. He wasn’t nearly as successful in the playoffs, in which he surrendered nine earned runs on 16 hits and totaled nine strikeouts against four walks in 14 2/3 innings.
Anderson led the Rays with six saves during the regular season in 2020, but they’ll have to lean on other end-of-game options until at least sometime in the summer. Diego Castillo, Pete Fairbanks, Chaz Roe and Ryan Thompson are among possible solutions for the Rays, whose bullpen – thanks in no small part to Anderson – ranked third in the majors in ERA a year ago.
That freaking sucks wonder if him being abused in the playoffs played a part
haha was about to comment this
Or maybe that played a part in him getting hit?
Sorry that your jealousy requires you to act like a b*tthurt kindergartner.
Did someone delete a comment? Because you just look like you’re angry at nothing
I love the irony of someone using the term “b#tthurt” while accusing another of being a kindergartner. This is ‘The Onion’-level stuff. Thank you!
The Rays will have 95 wins and 96 different pitchers will get saves.
And each of those 96 pitchers will go about 15 innings. You gotta love Kevin Cash and 5 hour baseball games…
Oof
Yankees are going to be the 7th best team in the league and find their way in the WS. The AL is a joke.
I lol’d ….. But really, he’s a great closer at the top of his game. I hope he comes back healthy so when the Yankees finish first the negative Nancys (ahem) can’t say they didn’t have the best competition
Best of luck Mr. Anderson. Speedy recovery and I hope you don’t need surgery.
dont worry, it will balance out when cole gets whacked for slopping his fingers in special sauce. but maybe this will let you clowns make up the 7 game expanse between our ball clubs
Yes, it’s all about the Yankees….even on an article about a Rays relief pitcher.
Earlier today we found that 8 teams called the Yankees about a spare OF. Wow! Big News!!! Endless comments were under the article. Ever occur to anyone that at this time of the Spring every single team in MLB is getting multiple calls about excess players from other teams?
Some teams get the pub. Some go to the World Series. The Rays went to the WS last year. The Yankees last went in….hold on, let me look it up…..ah-HA, have it right here…….2009.
“Yes, it’s all about the Yankees” – Samual
Yeah, bro. Pretty much. No argument from this Cowboy.
Yankees are not Cowboys, they play football in Dallas Texas and are known as Americas team, nobody except New Yorkers like the Yankees?
Handy & Samual: Okay, let’s play it fair then…. You agree to stop allowing the Yankees to financially float your entire organization, perhaps?
Kind of like the kids living off mom and dad, yet constantly hates on them about everything…. ugh, spoiled kids!
The Yankees are still the “Evil Empire”, they just don’t win the World Series any more.
I guess they have more of an “Evil Contender” thing going on now.
Wonder when the vitriol will start getting pointed at the Dodgers.
Are you intending this to make sense, @hippyguy?
I don’t think it does. Noun verb soup. Anyway, I’ve no problem being a cowboy & a Yankee (if that’s what you are indeed struggling to coherently state?) because I’m a complicated dude.
Mets fan calling something a joke. Figures.
This is what is known as irony.
The AL seems to always win the All-Star game and out plays the National League in Inter-league play most years…. But the AL is a Joke?
You’re delusional .
Teams like the angels could win a division this year. So yeah….
Why are you copy/pasting this comment on every damn thread?
Well, as a Mets fan, you should certainly appreciate a joke…
It seems like the Rays have lost a ton of relievers to injuries the past year or so. They still have pretty decent depth, but this is a huge blow.
They’re the Rays: they perpetually have at least a dozen no-name relievers at the hand at any given moment. They will be just fine because (insert name here) will come out of nowhere to post a 1.57 ERA.
All of the Ray’s relief pitchers should have “insert name here” on the back of their uniforms.
Interesting that the forearm gave trouble last year prior to this current elbow tear. Perhaps he was pitching injured last fall in the playoffs and didn’t know it.
His numbers were ridiculous the last 2 regular seasons. I hope he comes back just as dominant. In the meantime, watch out for Mr Fairbanks.
Hate to see this but now if Yankees can’t win division and get to a WS. Heads will roll.
why because the rays lost 1 reliever? so what were the bankees in last place because they lost britton?
I worry that he overthrew. Dude brings it, and he is already 30. Hope he can come back w no surgery–great pitcher.
Honeywell, McClanahan, Patino, Strotman…all dudes in the minors who have good to great stuff. Doesn’t even count McKay when he is healthy. This hurts, but the Rays can get by better than most.
Bad break for the Rays
They need to add more roster spots this year. This is just going to get worse and worse as pitchers rack up more innings after the short workload last year.
Red Sox chances keep continuing to improve with all of this pre-season attrition in the AL East. It’s probably a good thing MLB didn’t extend 2020 into November or December as there would be even more injuries this ST. I have a bad feeling this is only the beginning of a lot of IL stints for key players across the league this year, especially pitchers once they get into July. They didn’t pitch enough last year..it might be the healthiest team that wins it all in 2021.
Probably needed surgery last year
Very good reliever, but it seems like the rays can always come up with another quality reliever.
He really should proceed straight to surgery. This reads like a significant tear, even if not a full one. I guess waiting to see if other non-surgical options will work makes some sense, but not much. If he has it now he’s back by mid-2022. If he waits a few months, he misses the entire 2022.
I blame myself. This off season I traded for Reyes Montoya, Nick Anderson and Tyler Yates. To make matters even better, I drafted LeClerc AND Yohan Ramirez. Seriously, I kid you not.
We’re talking real life here dude. It’s a guys career not your fake dynasty no one cares about
All of the stories say elbow ligament, but I haven’t seen a mention of UCL. Is there another ligament in there?
I just looked it up. There are three ligaments in the elbow. Since none of the stories say UCL, can we assume that Anderson’s tear is one of the other two?