The Cardinals reassigned righty Nick Anderson to minor league camp, but the right-hander has an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. Effectively, that forces the Cardinals to make him available to the 29 other teams and let him go if another club is willing to place him on its 40-man roster.
More specifically, MLBTR has learned that Anderson will be available to other clubs on March 23. They’ll have 24 hours to decide whether they want to claim him and place him on the 40-man roster. If another team is willing to do so, the Cardinals will have 72 hours to counter by placing him on their own 40-man roster; if they choose not to, they have to let him go. Anderson’s deal contains a $1.1MM base salary in the big leagues.
Anderson, 34, has had a rollercoaster career. At times, he’s been flat-out dominant, as was the case in 2019-20, when he pitched 81 1/3 innings of 2.77 ERA ball with a ridiculous 42.2% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. He’s never quite recreated that success but has generally been effective when healthy. That, unfortunately, has proven to be a major caveat for the oft-injured righty.
Though he debuted in 2019 and has more than five years of MLB service, Anderson only has 158 1/3 innings of major league work under his belt. He’s been sidelined by a laundry list of injuries, including a shoulder strain, and internal brace procedure on his right ulnar collateral ligament, plantar fasciitis, a back strain and forearm inflammation. All of those injuries have occurred since 2020.
It’s been a mixed bag for Anderson this spring. He’s had a few solid outings but was tagged for four runs in one-third of an inning midway through camp. In his final appearance before being sent out to minor league camp, he gave up a pair of solo homers in an inning of work. Overall, he’s yielded eight runs on 11 hits and two walks and six strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames — a grisly 13.50 ERA. It’s a small sample that’s heavily skewed by that one particularly awful outing, but it’s still not an ideal set of results when hoping another club might come calling with a 40-man roster opportunity.
Rocky spring notwithstanding, Anderson touts a 3.18 earned run average in the majors and has paired that with plus strikeout and walk rates of 31.6% and 7.2%, respectively. If a club watched him during Grapefruit League play and felt his raw stuff outshined the small-sample run prevention numbers, it’s feasible that his track record and current health could prompt another team to take a look. His $1.1MM base salary is only $340K north of league minimum. However, because he has five-plus years of MLB service, Anderson would need to consent to be optioned with another team, which only throws another layer into the equation when weighing the possibility of adding him once he’s formally available.
An upward mobility clause sounds like a medical condition.
I need to ask my boss for an upward mobility clause.
If your upward mobility clause lasts more than 3 hours, please report to the nearest emergency room
Only John Mozeliak… of the St. Louis Cardinals … could come up with a player with an “Upward Mobility Clause”!!
The adverse things he’s done. The misdirection he’s taken the franchise over the past 6-7 years is unbelievable!!
Why the owners have allowed him to continue in this negative direction until the franchise hits rock bottom …. into a rebuild ….. without firing the man…. Is beyond the entire “Cardinals Nation”.
mozeliak is the poster child of baseball executives who use vapid corporate jargon a la “we want to put a product on the field that maximizes fan engagement”
Almost every veteran player invited to spring training on a minor league contract has one of these.
Because franchise profits have never been higher.
There’s only a couple owners willing to lose money to win and they still don’t lose money.
These clauses are quite common with minor league contracts.
Just another “clause” to make these contracts more complicated.
Why’d you put clause in quotes? Are you implying it doesn’t exist?
Shouldof been “clause[sic]”
OK, but…should have.
Baseball contracts should always be simple enough for @Bob to understand.
Awww, too complicated for you?
Please stand and raise your arms
The way he has pitched this Spring, he can gladly go anywhere else!
This has Rockies written all over it
If Upward Mobility means being on the Cardinals who are admittedly cutting corners really Upward Mobility? This is a real head scratcher.
Well, they cut one corner (1B Goldschmidt). They tried to cut the other corner (3B Arenado), but it didn’t work out, so that corner will stay intact for now.
Given that he is making more than the minimum id probably just release him or rework a deal, any team willing to roster him should have him.
Saint Nick and his Santa Clause
Upward mobility sounds like he permanently needs help getting up from a wheelchair.
His contact states that “In the case of performance issues, Mr. Anderson is permitted by MLBPA in agreement with MLB to take the PED known as “The Blue Chewy” 30 min before gametime, or the beginning of the 4th inning in the case of a relief role. This is to be administered orally by Dr. Jose Canseco.
upward mobility has no place in the united states of america
Have you never done paid job training and then got bumped up in pay once said training was completed? Are you not free to leave if the company for whatever reasons chooses not to hire you? Happens every day everywhere.
Actually, I get paid training all the time and had to sign a no compete clause to get said training.
If no other team takes him, he’ll be assigned to AAA Memphis, right?
What’s the order of teams that can claim him or does he get to choose among those who will add him?
Probably same as the draft order before the lottery shuffles the order.
So worst to best record from last year’s regular season
I’m just curious because it’s an interesting contract clause. More guys should get it in there if they are even close to borderline getting a roster spot.
Does it say they have to put him on waivers or is it independent and teams contact the Cards separately?