The Dodgers continue to add to their roster, announcing this evening they’ve agreed to terms with Tyler Anderson on a one-year deal. It’s reportedly an $8MM guarantee that also contains an additional $500K in incentives if he exceeds 100 innings next season.
Anderson was one of the better remaining options in a free agent rotation market that has been mostly picked through. The southpaw is coming off a decent season split between the Pirates and Mariners, in which he combined for a 4.53 ERA over 167 innings. Anderson only averaged a bit more than five innings per start, but he took the ball 31 times and was generally successful with regards to keeping his team in games. He allowed three or fewer earned runs in all but five of his outings.
Signed by Pittsburgh to a $2.5MM guarantee last offseason, he settled in as perhaps the most reliable member of the Bucs’ starting staff. Over 18 outings, Anderson worked 103 1/3 frames with a 4.35 ERA. He was an obvious trade candidate as an impending free agent on a rebuilding team. After a reported agreement with the Phillies fell through due to concerns about the medical evaluation of one of the prospects involved, the Pirates pivoted and flipped him to Seattle for prospects Carter Bins and Joaquin Tejada at the deadline. Anderson spent the final couple months with the M’s, performing alright until a nine-run blow-up against the Angels tanked his overall numbers.
Anderson isn’t the most overpowering arm on the market. His fastball averaged 90.6 MPH last season, and he struck out a below-average 19.1% of opposing hitters. Yet he was adept at getting opponents to chase pitches outside the strike zone, and his mediocre strikeout percentage belied a solid 11.5% swinging strike rate. That’s partially because batters swung so often against him — among pitchers with 100+ innings, only Michael Wacha had a higher opponents’ swing rate — but Anderson nevertheless generated more whiffs per swing inside the strike zone than the average starter.
In addition to getting opponents to frequently chase, Anderson threw pitches in the zone at a higher-than-average rate. Those contributed to keep his walks down, as he doled out free passes at just a 5.4% clip. He’s been a low-walk arm throughout his career, and he’s posted an ERA between 4.37 and 4.55 in each of his last three seasons (excluding a 2019 campaign in which he was limited to five starts by left knee issues). A fly-ball pitcher, Anderson has been prone to the home run ball throughout his career. He also generates his fair share of pop-ups, though, and he’s typically adept at avoiding hard contact.
Anderson has started all but four of his 117 MLB appearances. He’ll presumably join the back-of-the-rotation mix in Los Angeles, joining offseason signee Andrew Heaney, David Price and Tony Gonsolin among the options for Dave Roberts. Walker Buehler, Julio Urías and Clayton Kershaw will be the top three options from the outset of the season. Trevor Bauer remains on the roster, but his paid administrative leave was recently extended through April 16.
The $8MM guarantee only adds to an ever-mounting payroll in Los Angeles. The Dodgers now have an estimated $282MM in actual payroll, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. Their luxury tax ledger is up to $284MM, just $6MM shy of the highest tier of penalization.
Because they exceeded the CBT last season, the Dodgers will be subject to escalating fees as a second-time payor. They’ll be taxed at a 30% rate for every dollar spent between $230MM and $250MM, a 42% clip on overages between $250MM and $270MM, a 75% rate on overages between $270MM and $290MM and a 90% tax on all expenditures north of $290MM.
Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Dodgers and Anderson had agreed to a deal. Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic reported it was a one-year pact. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the $8MM guarantee, while Jon Heyman of the MLB Network was first with the incentives.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Decent 5th starter.
This whole LA Dodger thing keeps putting a strangle hold on the rest of baseball. Lets hope we have a Braves team or similiar miracle that will emasculate the big money ballers of baseball
If Curly was the smart stooge, which of the other two are you?
I’m Curly, the smart stooge. The other two are Mo & Larry. There’s another stooge called captainsalty. He’s the most clueless of them all and apparently a troll.
Just find your take worn and tired. The Dodgers have one of, if not the most organically grown rosters in baseball. Sure they spend money (like all teams have the ability to) but their spending this season hasn’t even been near the Mets or Rangers and on par with the Rockies. They traded for Betts last year but gave up a solid package to get him. Same with Trea and the since departed Scherzer at last year’s deadline. Giving up a few pieces of an abundant farm system for a difference maker or two at the deadline is hardly a move restricted to “big market” teams. Instead of crying about a team being run extremely well and making precise signings and trades and the most opportune time, perhaps you should see the bigger problem which is teams tanking for rebuilding purposes and not investing properly into their organization.
I grant you that your team is run well & that you have a good minor league system. But you spend more than anyone & their not “organically” grown Freddie Freeman is not organically grown, neither is Trea Turner or AJ Pollack or Mookie Betts. You spend big bucks whether you want to admit it or not, but you are the team to beat.
Are you saying Freeman was grown with chemicals? Is he non-GMO? Gluten free?
yeah I think the only guys that are from the system right now are kershaw, smith, beuhler and urias – even guys they like o claim as homegrown like taylor and lux such were rookies acquisitions……
Lux was a first round draft pick by the Dodgers. On the current roster, Bellinger, Barnes, Rios, Gonsolin, and May all came up through the organization, to name just a few more. Since you mention him, Taylor was a castoff from the Mariners.
Freeman got half the contract Seager did. Are the Rangers ruining baseball? Trea Turner and Mookie were traded for top prospects, hardly bought with big bucks. Yes Mookie was signed to a big contract extension in short order but that could’ve been any team putting that offer out there for a player of his caliber. Pollock was a pretty modest spend. We stay around or slightly above the luxury threshold just as any team is capable of doing. Again, the real problem is the billionaires investing properly into their organizations, not the Dodgers willingness to invest into theirs.
Don’t bother salty their minds are already made up facts be damned –
As a Braves fan I’m really not sure why other Braves fans are so concerned with the Dodgers getting Freddie. It’s a lateral move for their offense based on the team they fielded in Sept last year. They lose Seager but gain Freddie. It’s a wash or you could easily argue it could actually be a downgrade based on the age of the two players. But from that team last year they lose Sherzer, lose Kelly and potentially Jensen. They are not as good going into this year as they were in Sept last year.
The Braves lose Freddie but gain Olson…that’s a wash. So with that and if Soler is resigned, they bring back the same team that just beat the Dodgers in the LCS but they add Acuna and potentially Soroka and Yates by seasons end. I’ll take the Braves.
So you’re saying it’s the fault of the teams “tanking” & that’s how you lick your “chops” by usurping the cast offs? Sounds right
The Mookie Betts contract is the largest contract the Dodgers have handed out during the Andrew Friedman era. That was an extension for a player already in the organization. Before the Bauer signing last year, the largest contract Friedman had given a free agent signed away from another team was the four-year deal he gave A.J. Pollock four years ago. Even the Bauer signing was a short term deal. But no one was saying anything when we kept coming up short because we weren’t signing the top free agents on the market that could have put us over the top. So vent all you want. You’re just jealous your team isn’t run like the Dodgers.
Remind me to not shop in your organic grocery store. Whole Foods would laugh their heads off all the way to your ultimate bankruptcy.
The Dodgers who won their first championship in 32 years on a 60 game season Dodgers? Yeah those Dodgers…. I don’t want to hear about the Astros either. Keep spending money. Maybe you can win a real championship this year. Dodger fans will call me a troll. Baseball fans will give me a thumps up.
Maybe it’s a difference of opinion but I think they certainly got Betts and Trea Turner “organically.” They had to subtract from an elite farm system in order to obtain them, but that seems pretty organic to me.
You’re complaining about the Dodgers having the $$$ to sign….Tyler Anderson? Newsflash: all 30 teams can afford an $8 million pitcher.
@mister guy. Maybe you should think harder and do a simple search. Everything you said is not true.
Yes, they organically have a 200 million dollar payroll of homegrown talent and then a 200 million dollar payroll of hired guns. Geniuses. Such a savvy team.
Thumps up.
LOL. While you are making up your own rules let’s take away world series won by teams that made it into a diluted playoff structure. in the last 30 years. Oh wait, rules are rules and everyone has the same chance at Game 1.
Bottom line all teams are billion dollar franchises and granted the Dodgers may have an advantage with their local tv deal. However, too many MLB teams care more about the bottom line and profit margin than they do competing to win. I never understand why fans get bent out of shape if the Dodgers spend money?
Are fans sitting around rooting for the A’s and Reds to maximize their profit margins? The owners of these teams if they only care about profit margins, they should just sell the team and take their billion dollars or more and move on. There are infinite business ventures to own “just” for profit sake. Only 30 MLB teams with cities, fans, players, etc. that only want to win.
MLB could use more Cohens who are much like fans and players, just win baby!
Remember that the Dodgers weren’t whole last year either during that series. Not taking anything away from the Braves because they played like the better team and deserved to win, but let’s not forget that we were missing pieces too.
Baseball fans realize that every team played that season under the same crappy circumstances. I’m sure you’d be crying fake championship if your team won lol
Barnes didn’t come up through the system. He first played for the org in AAA, the same year he made his MLB debut.
Maybe your anger should be directed at your team owners and not the Dodgers. In the case off FF, all the braves needed to do was add an extra year and FF would be a Brave right now.
leave something for everyone else LA!
Everybody else had a chance to sign him ⚾️⚾️!
Interesting move. Thought he might be headed here.
To Orange County? Lol. No way. ⚾️
I’d much rather have Bradley and Tepera.
There was a rumor that the Angels were going after Anderson, but I guess they found Tepera and Bradley to be better deals..
Better for the club.. I’d love to have as much pitching as possible, but unless you’re a team of moneybags, it’s always this or that.
They’re saving Arte’s money to sign Trevor Bauer after he opts out of his Dodgers deal . More Moreno money well spent.
The rich get richer.
Such a smart signing by LA. I guess every other team is happy with their pitching staff.
Genuinely the Dodgers have a really interesting “shadow rotation”. You figure they go with a 5 of Buehler/Kershaw/Urias/Heaney/Anderson. Then as other options they have Gonsolin/Price as swing guys. They’ve got Duffy and May coming back at some point this season. And then there’s the whole Bauer situation.
Their shadow rotation, if healthy/playing, would be a legitimately good rotation for 20+ teams in the league.
For how many games do you expect Gonsolin, Price, Kershaw, Duffy and May to be available?
Ugh, I am starting a GoFundMe for Hal Steinbrenner…. Poor guy only has a few hundred million a year leftover so he can’t afford to get Tyler Anderson.
Tyler Anderson is really mediocre at best
Clipper — Be thankful. In this case you dodged a bullet. Tyler Anderson is awful.
I know, I’m just messing around. We do need a starting pitcher though since one of ours went down already (Domingo German 60-day IL), and we don’t know what to expect out of Sevy.
But, we already have a World Series caliber roster so, no need to get anyone.
@Yankee clipper I don’t mean to offend you or any Yankees fan. But I’d be looking for OF help since Judge and/or Stanton seem to spend quite a bit of time on the IL. A guy like McCutchen or someone similar with something still in the tank, should be top priority. A guy to plug in if anything happens to Judge or Stanton or use as DH at times to give him ABs. They need someone close enough to Stanton or Judge offensive numbers to keep that lineup lethal. McCutchen is still a 20 hr guy and probably a DH mostly now. I don’t think he’s horrible in RF at this stage in his career. He is reasonably priced and wouldn’t have broke the bank to sign. Anyways, I think the Yankees will be alright with pitching, but that lineup can be concerning with injuries. Every year it happens to the Yankees and it’s always the top 2 players on the team. And both are in the OF.
Yes. The Yankees absolutely need a good 4th outfielder, @Pirates’81. Which – yes – we do not currently have.
Atta boy.
You regurgitate that company line. Say it enough, you might start believing it.
He gave up 2 ER in 5 innings against the Yankees; the Yankees must be awful.
Personally, i wouldn’t have mind seeing Anderson in Yankee pinstripes. With that said, it definitely is strange seeing the Yankees be such a non-factor most winters now. Guess i just remember George going after everyone and anyone. Sadly the Sox have been the same under Bloom
I gave at the office, Clip.
After 10 minutes with Dodger pitching coach he realizes he is RIGHT-handed….
Goes 23-4 1.77 ERA Wins Cy Young
Resigns w/Dodgers 4yrs, 5mil per year.
Gets traded in year 4 for someone you never heard of. That guy becomes star.
Yeah as a braves fan i envy there ability to find those diamonds in the rough. Very well run organisation.
Mariners should have resigned him, especially after losing J Dunn
M’s didn’t need another lefty SP. I would rather have a reunion with Michael Pineda.
Pineda’s stuff is really starting to decline a bit. He could still soak up some innings though.
Dodgers didn’t seem to care about adding another lefty when they already had 3. I do get what you are saying though
Mrperkins
Almost peed in pants laughing.
I am very disappointed Jerry didn’t bring gim back. M’s srill need at least one more SP unless they plan on starting Sheffield or think Kirby is ready.
gim srill
GIM SRILL
I went to high school with Gim Srill.
Some of are old fogies that can barely read the small print on phones, even with the strongest reading glasses.
Dodgers rotation is very lefty heavy with Buehler as the only Righty.
Buehler Urias Kershaw Gonsolin Anderson? Possibility of Bauer?
Not to mention Miller, Pepiot, and Knack — all RHP that are ready or near ready to debut.
Dustin May will be back sometime this season as well…..
Possibility of Bauer = 0.
hope the dodgers release him outright.
Could happen, but best case scenario, he serves a suspension and the Dodgers at least try to flip the remainder of his contract for however many pennies on the dollar they can get.
Anyone know id Dodgers are paying Bauer?
Not even the Astros would take this villain.
fox471, Bauer was paid throughout his administrative leave last year, and the same thing is happening again now. If he receives a formal suspension, then he would not be paid.
Do they accept rubles?
More likely Buehler, Urias, Kershaw, Heaney, Anderson.
0 possibility of Bauer.
I think Bauer should take the hill after he serves his MLB suspension for LAD but I know how fragile La folk can be
* Cohen should offer Cano at the break and capitalize. Dodgers save some money this year and 15 mill next year (Cano could be cut/doesn’t matter either way. It would be dumb IMO but it could wash their hands
You working on earning a muting here Cap?
Call it like I see it as an LA native
I’ve offered my opinion, offered the majority opinion , and then offered a resolution
You can’t just wish things away
Gosh, what things would those be, I wonder? I mean, if I’m wishing stuff away I would like to know which ones.
What are you taking offense too?
La folk being fragile? I mean Cmon man, they are
We are the Capital for fragile in America
Sorry, that’s just weird, dude.
You’re weird, dude.
Weird sure, but foe entertainment value I’d like to see where this convo goes.
No place. It was enough to point out bizarreness of the concept and leave it at that.
You’re a mensch and it’s really turning us on.
Frankie montas dodgers reunion incoming lol. They definitely have the prospects and montas is making $5 mill this season
Don’t see that. Could be wrong, but I thick the PED suspension will scare the Dodgers away from trading prospects for him – seeing as another violation means a full year suspension and you’d have nothing to show for the prospects you gave up.
May, Gonsolin, maybe Bauer, Heaney, Jackson, White, they’ve got plenty of RHP.
Heaney is a LHP
In fairness, the Dodgers have such a deep stable of pitchers, I completely forgot about Jackson and White — both of whom I like as well.
Embarrassment of riches…hopefully it equals another WS ring, then hopefully multiple rings!
Dodgers going to go with 4 lefty starters?
Gonsolin is a righty as are their top two pitching prospects Ryan Pepiot and Bobby Miller. Pepiot will get starts this year when the annual injuries begin to mount.
Gonsolin seems earmarked to piggyback off of another starter (like he did much of last season) the others will be along as the season goes on. I suppose i look at as there are not many lefty heavy lineups these days (certainly not in the NL West). It would make sense for a team like the Yankees to stack the rotation with lefties as home ballpark factors play to that strength (interestingly, they clearly disagree as they only have one lefty starter)
My age is apparently showing again
Don’t rule out a trade deadline pickup of another HOFer
Back in the day, the Dodgers went all lefties for a time. Kershaw Ryu Wood (Brett) Anderson Kazmir. They also acquired Rich Hill that year at the deadline, I believe.
Dustin May will be back at some point too.
Not if there are April showers.
Small sign Bauer could be back. They aren’t making major pitching moves to clog the rotation
More and more I think if we get another high end starter, it won’t be until the trade deadline after we see what we have and who is pitching well on other teams. We’ll have to trust the offense to carry us a little bit.
That has more to do with the $45 million dollars they don’t know if they will be on the hook for. As long as Bauer sits on “administrative leave” the Dodgers still have to pay him, only if he gets suspended does that change. The Dodgers payroll already sits at $240 mil and thats without Freddie Freeman
Anderson’s awful. Best suited as a #6 or #7, at best.
He’s likely their 6-7 at this point.
Anderson is Andrew Heaney, Part II. Good thing the Dodgers didn’t sign him until after Kershaw, or we know what we’d be hearing right now.
Glad the Angels didn’t sign him.
How on earth did he get 8mil? Good for him.
Did well as the Pirates Ace. If he gets 30 starts for LA he might win a dozen games.
Was hoping Miami would of signed Anderson. The Dodgers did get a decent addition to their pitching staff.
Glad the Dodgers made this move and not the Angels. Dodgers have enough pitching depth if he doesn’t work out.
This is a very uncharacteristic Dodgers/Andrew Freidman move. They don’t often get someone from the outside unless he is a clear improvement on what they already have. Heaney is a little different because they think he can be a way better pitcher than he’s shown and analytics suggest his pure stuff is there. I do think they need more innings, and Anderson can give them that, And maybe a 4.30-4.50 ERA is ok if your offense is so stacked. Ordinarily, this screams roster crunch but I am guessing the Dodgers are guessing that rosters will be expanded for the first month of the season, and it won’t be an issue until after that and, hey, someone could always be injured by then. Still seems sort of an outlier move by them.
Anderson is a better option than Price and Gonsolin. They don’t have a ton of internal help beyond Kershaw, Buehler and Urias
Better than Price – especially because of workload – but not as good as Gonsolin. But maybe Gonsolin’s shoulder is still up in the air.
Way to go Angels
I’m happier with Bradly and Tepera.
Shortstop is a bigger need.
Agreed. Angels are better off with Bradley and Tepera. Also, I’d much rather have Detmers, Canning, Barria, or Junk getting a chance in the rotation over Anderson.
I’m in favor of adding starting pitching as long as it *improves* the rotation—Anderson wouldn’t do that.
Spend the 8 million elsewhere.
“Junk” is just such a terrible name for a Pitcher, especially one pitching for a team that has been signing junk trying to cobble together a rotation for years…
For CBT, I have the Dodgers at 457 + Duffy, Penciling in Duffy at 6, that’s 463. Plus Jansen at 14 makes it 277. (No, they have not signed him but I imagine they might if Jansen will take 2 years). That’s without Bauer, of course. They COULD pull all this off and stay under 290. But even half a season of Bauer puts them past 290. And there will be lot’s of luxury tax regardless. Which for the Dodgers is probably less critical than the non-monetary penalties – dropping in the Rule 4 draft and losing 1 million from international bonus pool. Without Jansen they could possibly avoid that though.
As a Dodger fan, Idc about their tax hit. It’s not my money. But this is getting out of hand. I don’t like the non-monetary penalties that are on the way at this point. MANFRED WONT PENALIZE BAUER ENOUGH… he’s really sticking it to Bauer AND the Dodgers with these postponements and paid leaves. Manfred doesn’t have the balls to give Bauer a half season suspension, let alone a whole season so Bauer’s contract is going to screw the Dodgers over one way or another.
Without Duffy and Anderson, there was a shot at offloading Price + prospect and then a Bauer year suspension to get under 230. Now there’s not even an opportunity for that.
By my math, the Dodgers are paying $24.9 million in overages based on the numbers posted at the end of this article. CBT penalties hardly seem like a deterrent to a team like the Dodgers.
So, the Dodgers are going with an 8 man starting rotation???
And the Dodgers continue to prove that the league is right to try to establish a hard cap. You can’t have one team like this throwing out 300 million dollars when smaller teams can’t even afford to spend 100 million. This will ruin baseball eventually if you can just go out and buy a championship.
I guess the Question becomes Do you really want parity that bad in the MLB
The NFL and NBA say yes today
MLB has some really old roots sewn in and appear nowhere close today (Imo)
From a fan perspective (and MLBTR cruisers) a salary cap/floor designed like (not identical) to the NBA would be soo soo much fun for everyone to comb thru realtive to what we have today
I realize most MLB guys don’t know the ends and outs of the NBA cap but it basically drives action (trades) and holds accountability to inking a bad deal(s)
A better equation than time service manipulations, salary dumps, homegrown talent departing at Arb 3 etc etc that MLB currently operates under.
But it’s a whole new world for MLB, one I don’t think they have much interest exploring {yet?}
Dodgers paying depth 6-7th starters more than some teams pay their whole rotation but it’s all fair.
Some of these posters are BIG MAD. Using the Dodgers as the scapegoat. That being said. I think this Anderson deal is a head scratcher. 4.62 career ERA.
Tyler Anderson is probably one of the better options at the 5th. At best 4th on other teams