Anderson, 30, last played in the majors back in 2021. A 21st-round pick by Philadelphia in the 2012 draft, the righty made his big league debut in 2017 and spent the next half-decade bouncing between the major and minor leagues with the Phillies, White Sox, and Rangers organizations. In that time, he struggled to a 6.50 ERA in 44 1/3 innings of work at the big league level despite decent peripherals, including a 4.35 FIP. During the 2021-22 offseason, Anderson was released by the Rangers and opted against searching for a new stateside deal. Instead, he headed to Japan to pitch for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hiroshima Carp on a $1MM deal.

The right-hander ultimately spent two seasons in NPB, and pitched quite well during that time. Anderson posted a 3.05 ERA in 115 innings across 34 appearances for the Carp in total, striking out 20.7% of opponents while walking just 8.4%. That was enough to earn him some stateside attention during the 2023-24 offseason, and Anderson landed with the Tigers on a minor league deal back in January. The right-hander failed to make Detroit’s Opening Day roster, however, and after just nine appearances with Triple-A Toledo the Tigers agreed to release him so he could head to South Korea and play for the Landers.

Anderson slotted into the Landers’ rotation alongside former big leaguers Kwang Hyun Kim and Roenis Elias and pitched fairly solidly in his first year of KBO play. While the right-hander’s 3.89 ERA was hardly exceptional, his 115 2/3 innings of work was his most in a season since 2018 and and he struck out an excellent 31.9% of opponents faced. That massive uptick in strikeout rate came with an elevated 10.7% walk rate, but that firepower makes it easy to imagine Anderson finding greater success with the Landers in 2025 and potentially getting the attention of MLB clubs once again next winter.

Should Anderson wish to make it back to the big leagues, there’s certainly reason for optimism that he’ll be able to do that. The KBO has served as a proving ground for other hurlers who struggled in their first taste of big league action in the past. Merrill Kelly is one standout example of a player who pitched in the KBO before returning to stateside ball to make a name for himself, and right-hander Erick Fedde landed a $15MM guarantee from the White Sox just last offseason after a dominant 2023 campaign in South Korea.

Anderson, 30, was in the Detroit organization after signing an offseason minor league deal. He’d been pitching in long relief at Triple-A Toledo, tossing 14 innings across nine appearances. Anderson punched out 16 hitters with a 3.86 ERA in a solid stint that caught the attention of the Landers. He would have had a tough time securing a spot in a Detroit bullpen that has been one of the game’s best, so the Tigers were content to let him pursue the KBO job.

This will be Anderson’s first stint in Korea. He pitched in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp between 2022-23, working to a cumulative 3.05 ERA over 115 innings. Anderson last appeared in the big leagues in 2021, throwing a career-high 22 innings with a 3.27 ERA for the Rangers. The former third-round draftee has also had brief stints with the Phillies and White Sox and played in parts of five MLB campaigns overall.

In a corresponding move, the Landers released right-hander Robert Dugger. KBO teams are only allowed to carry two foreign-born pitchers on their roster. Signing Anderson meant they had to move on from either Roenis Elías or Dugger. While Elías has a pedestrian 4.63 ERA over four starts, Dugger had a very rough showing. The right-hander was rocked for a 12.71 ERA in his six KBO appearances.

A former 18th-round pick of the Mariners, Dugger pitched to a 7.17 ERA with four MLB teams between 2019-22. He spent all of last season in Triple-A with the Rangers, where he posted a 4.31 ERA over 29 starts in an extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting.

Detroit’s talented trio of right-handers didn’t make the decision easy — at least not in terms of spring results. Each of Mize, Olson and Manning pitched between 14 2/3 innings and 16 innings this spring, and none posted an ERA north of Olson’s 3.68. Olson posted the best blend of strikeout and walk rates in camp (22.6% and 6.5%, respectively). Mize notched the lowest ERA but the highest walk rate. Manning was perhaps done in by the six home runs he yielded in 16 innings.

While Manning won’t open the season in the rotation, it’s likely that he, Mize and Olson will all make their share of starts in Detroit this season. Mize is in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery and back surgery. He’ll be on an innings limit of some degree. Injuries in the rotation are also a virtual inevitability. Even with Manning opening the year in Toledo, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him start 15-plus games in the bigs.

Mize, 27 in May, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft. He showed plenty of promise in 2021, tossing 150 1/3 innings of 3.71 ERA ball with a below-average 19.3% strikeout rate but a strong 6.7% walk rate and similarly encouraging 48.1% ground-ball rate. That looked to set the stage for Mize to seize a long-term spot in the Detroit rotation, but he unfortunately suffered a UCL tear early in the 2022 season. He wound up undergoing Tommy John surgery and, while he was rehabbing that procedure, underwent surgery to address a nagging back issue that had been plaguing him for some time. He’s still under club control for three seasons.

Olson, 24, made his big league debut with Detroit last season and quickly impressed. In his first 103 2/3 MLB frames, he turned in a 3.99 ERA with average or better strikeout (24.4%), walk (7.8%) and ground-ball (42.8%) rates. Olson supported those rates with solid marks in swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates as well. The Tigers control him all the way through 2029.

The 26-year-old Manning was Detroit’s first-round pick back in 2016. He’s pitched in parts of three big league seasons, logging a 4.37 ERA with a 16.1% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 41.6% grounder rate. Manning hasn’t missed bats at the levels expected throughout his time as a top-ranked prospect, but he’s shown solid command and kept the ball in the yard nicely to this point in his career. He’s also had frequent bad luck with injuries, including a 2023 season in which he incredibly broke his foot on two separate occasions upon being struck by a comeback line-drive. He’s under club control through 2027 and will remain a notable piece of the Tigers’ rotation puzzle in the foreseeable future, even if he starts this season out in Toledo.

Anderson, 30 in March, got scattered major league time from 2017 to 2021. He suited up for the Phillies, White Sox and Rangers, appearing in five straight seasons but never making more than nine appearances in any individual campaign. He threw a combined 44 1/3 innings in 19 games over that stretch, allowing 6.50 earned runs per nine frames. His 8.3% walk rate was around average but his 14.7% strikeout rate was well below.

After that run, he headed overseas to join Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Over the past two years, Anderson tossed 115 innings in 34 games for the Carp, with a 3.05 ERA in that time. He struck out 20.7% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.4% clip.

On the heels of those solid results in Japan, Anderson now returns to North America and will join the Tigers. He has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career and it’s unclear which role the Tigers have in mind for him, but he would seem to have a steep climb towards a starting role.

The club has Tarik Skubal, Kenta Maeda and Jack Flaherty in the rotation, with Matt Manning, Casey Mize, Reese Olson and Sawyer Gipson-Long likely batting for the spots at the back end. Other options on the roster include Alex Faedo, Mason Englert, Joey Wentz and Keider Montero. Top prospects Wilmer Flores, Ty Madden and Jackson Jobe are getting close to their major league debuts, with Flores having already secured a spot on the 40-man.

Nonetheless, as the cliches say, you can never have enough pitching depth and there’s no such thing as a bad minor league deal. For Anderson, he will get a chance to show himself to MLB scouts after a couple of years abroad and try to get back to show.

NOVEMBER 3, 5:45PM: The Rangers have officially announced the move, with team executive VP of communications John Blake (Twitter link) adding that Anderson will be signing with a team in Asia.

OCTOBER 30: The Rangers have released right-hander Drew Anderson, according to the transactions page at MLB.com. Signed to a minor league deal in the winter, he had his contract selected at the end of July to provide an extra arm for the team’s staff after they traded Joely Rodriguez, Ian Kennedy and Kyle Gibson at the trade deadline.

The 27-year-old has seen limited MLB action in five straight seasons now. Coming into this year, he had 22 1/3 big league innings over 2017-2020, and then added 22 further innings in 2021. Despite a miniscule strikeout rate of just 9.9%, he still managed to keep his ERA down to 3.27 over those 22 innings this season. In Triple-A this year, he logged 70 2/3 innings with an ERA of 3.06, strikeout rate of 29.9% and walk rate of 10.1%.

In the offseason, there is no longer any injured list and players on the 60-day IL have to take up a roster spot once again. With the release of Anderson, as well as players heading into free agency and those coming off the IL, the Rangers will have 42 players on their 40-man roster, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That means the Rangers will surely have to do more roster scrubbing in the coming days.

Today’s placements come just days after Charlie Culberson was placed on the Covid IL. They’ll leave the Rangers with a rather short-handed bench and likely result in some additional roster machinations in the days to come. However, while the Rangers are down a pair of third basemen — Holt and Culberson — Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets that a promotion of top third base prospect Josh Jung is “not in the plans” for the team. Yonny Hernandez and Andy Ibanez will split time at the hot corner while Holt and Culberson are away from the team.

The Rangers now have four open spots on the 40-man roster and will be able to promote players from Triple-A — even those not on the 40-man roster — as replacements without needing to subsequently pass them through waivers in order to return them to Round Rock once Holt, Anderson, Foltynewicz and Culberson make their returns.

AL East

• The Orioles claimed Ryan Hartman off of waivers from the Astros, according to Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com. The 27-year-old lefty was recently designated for assignment when Brooks Raley was reinstated from the COVID-IL.
• The Red Sox designated outfielder Marcus Wilson for assignment. The move was needed to accommodate the acquisition of reliever Hansel Robles from the Twins.
• The Yankees announced that they designated Ryan LaMarre for assignment. The outfielder was recently selected to help the team patch some holes during their COVID outbreak.
• The Rays designated righties Sean Poppen and Jake Reed for assignment, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. This was to create roster space after the acquisition of Jordan Luplow and DJ Johnson from earlier today.

AL Central

• Pablo Sandoval was released by the Indians. This was just hours after he was acquired in the Eddie Rosario trade. Based on his release, it’s clear that he was only included as salary offset.
• The Tigers selected the contract of reliever Ian Krol. The left-hander is back after being designated for assignment earlier in the week.

AL West

• The Mariners outrighted Vinny Nittoli to Triple-A. The righty recently had his contract selected, throwing one inning before being designated for assignment.
• The Rangers announced they were selecting the contracts of right-handers Jharel Cotton and Drew Anderson. Both hurlers signed minor league deals over the winter.

NL East

• The Marlins selected the contracts of outfielders Bryan De La Cruz and Brian Miller. Both players are now in line to make their major league debuts. Miami designated infielder Deven Marrero and outfielder Corey Bird for assignment to create roster space.
• As expected, the Mets officially reinstated starter Carlos Carrasco from the 60-day injured list. The righty made his team debut this evening against the Reds.
• The Phillies designated reliever Brandon Kintzler for assignment and transferred outfielder Matt Joyce to the 60-day injured list. The moves were necessary to create roster space to accommodate Philadelphia’s three deadline acquisitions.
• The Nationals selected the contracts of Gabe Klobosits and Adrian Sanchez, according to Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post. Klobosits, a right-handed pitcher, is a 36th round draft pick from 2017. He has no major league experience. Sanchez had a couple of cups of coffee with Washington from 2017-2019 before being outrighted in 2020 and then re-signing on a minor league deal.

NL Central

• The Cubs selected the contracts of RHP Michael Rucker and utilityman Andrew Romine, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Rucker was picked up by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft in 2019 but returned to the Cubs before the season started and has yet to make his major league debut. As for Romine, the 35-year-old utility man was signed by the Cubs to a minor league deal earlier this year. The Cubs also selected the contract of righty Jake Jewell prior to yesterday’s game.
• The Brewers announced that they designated RHP Patrick Weigel for assignment. Weigel was acquired as part of the Orlando Arcia trade with Atlanta back in April.

NL West

• The Diamondbacks claimed outfielder Jake Hager off waivers from the Mariners. This will be Hager’s fourth club on the season, having been previously designated for assignment by the Mets, Brewers and Mariners. Arizona also selected the contracts of infielder Drew Ellis and left-hander Miguel Aguilar.
• The Dodgers announced that they claimed catcher Chad Wallach off waivers from the Marlins. Wallach was recently designated for assignment when Brian Anderson was reinstated from the IL.

Anderson began his career with the Phillies, who chose him in the 21st round of the 2012 draft, but the organization moved on from him toward the end of the 2019 season. He spent some of last season with the White Sox, but they released him in early September after the 26-year-old threw just 1 1/3 innings in their uniform.

In all, Anderson has totaled 22 1/3 major league innings of 9.67 ERA ball and posted an 18.6 percent strikeout rate against a 9.7 percent walk rate. Anderson does, however, possess a far more respectable 3.52 ERA through 486 minor league frames.

The White Sox designated Goins for assignment on Monday, which came just over a month after they re-signed him to a minor league pact and selected his contract. The 32-year-old Goins took 14 trips to the plate as a member of the White Sox this season before they designated him, and he went hitless during that span. Of course, offense has never been a strong suit for Goins, who has combined for a .228/.278/.333 line across 1,690 plate appearances among the White Sox, Blue Jays and Royals.

The 26-year-old Anderson, formerly with the Phillies, was a minor league offseason pickup for Chicago who made just one appearance with the team this year. It went rather poorly for Anderson, who gave up six earned runs on four hits (including two homers) and two walks in 1 1/3 innings of an Aug. 8 loss to the Indians. The White Sox outrighted him shortly after that.

Formerly a member of the Phillies, with whom he entered pro ball as a 21st-round pick in 2012, Anderson joined the White Sox on a minor league contract last offseason. He made his debut with the White Sox on Aug. 8, but it couldn’t have gone much worse. The 26-year-old yielded six earned runs on four hits (including two homers) and two walks in a loss to the Indians, leading Chicago to drop him from its roster.

Thanks in large part to his one ugly appearance this season, Anderson’s now the owner of a woeful 9.67 ERA (albeit with a far more palatable 4.78 FIP) across 22 1/3 major league innings. He has been much better in Triple-A, though, having logged a 4.34 ERA with 7.4 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 over 159 2/3 frames. Anderson will now stay in the White Sox organization and try to work his way back to the bigs.

Anderson signed a minor league deal with Chicago during the offseason and only had his contract selected prior to Saturday’s game.  Unfortunately for Anderson, his 2020 debut was a nightmare — two home runs and six total earned runs allowed over 1 1/3 innings against the Indians.  It will make for a pretty ignominious White Sox tenure if Anderson is claimed or released, though he could also simply be outrighted back to the minor league camp if he passes through the DFA period.  The 26-year-old appeared in parts of the 2017-19 seasons with the Phillies, posting a 7.71 ERA over 21 innings.

Ruiz has had a similarly brief three-year tenure in the majors, though 40 of his 45 1/3 career innings from 2017-19 came last season with the White Sox.  Ruiz posted a 5.63 ERA, 1.46 K/BB rate, and 7.9 K/9 over those 40 frames.  Pitching exclusively as a reliever over 135 career minor league innings with the Padres and White Sox, the hard-throwing Ruiz has a 3.67 ERA, 10.1 K/9, and 2.48 K/BB rate.

Bummer suffered the injury in last night’s game, departing during an at-bat against Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez.  The seriousness of the biceps problem isn’t yet known, though any absence for Bummer counts as a problem for the White Sox given the southpaw’s increasing prominence in the bullpen.  After posting a 4.36 ERA over 53 2/3 innings during the 2017-18 seasons, Bummer broke out with a 2.13 ERA, 2.50 K/BB rate, 8.0 K/9, and a whopping 72.1% grounder rate over 67 2/3 innings in 2019.  Only Zack Britton had a higher ground-ball rate among all pitchers who threw at least 60 innings last season.

In a nod to their belief in Bummer’s work, the White Sox signed him to a contract extension in February that will pay Bummer at least $16MM in guaranteed money through the 2024 season.  If two club options are exercised, Bummer will be in Chicago through 2026 for a total of $29.5MM — not a bad payday for a rather unheralded 19th-round pick from the 2014 draft.

Burdi, meanwhile, had a much higher profile as the 26th overall pick over the 2016 draft, though the righty’s progress was stalled by Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for much of the 2017 and 2018 seasons.  If that wasn’t enough, a ligament tear in his patella prematurely ended Burdi’s 2019 campaign after just 22 2/3 innings.  All told, Burdi has only 100 2/3 professional innings under his belt, and only 16 of them at the Triple-A level.

However, those Triple-A innings came back in 2016, indicating that the White Sox were planning on fast-tracking him to their big league bullpen in pretty short order.  Working almost exclusively as a reliever, Burdi has a 4.31 ERA, 2.53 K/BB rate, and a 12.5 K/9 over his minor league career, and is the owner of a blazing fastball that regularly sits in the high 90’s and has often touched the 100mph plateau.  Burdi’s arsenal suggests a possible future as Chicago’s closer, if he can stay healthy and translate his velocity into success against big league hitters.

Lail has four Major League innings to his name over the last two seasons, including a single outing for the Sox this season that saw him toss 1 1/3 frames of work in Thursday’s 8-3 loss to the Brewers.  An 18th-round pick for the Yankees in 2012, Lail has mostly worked as a reliever in the minors over the last two seasons, and has an overall 3.97 ERA, 2.64 K/BB rate, and 7.0 K/9 over 741 career minor league frames.  The DFA is an unfortunate early birthday for Lail, who turns 27 tomorrow.

Anderson will make his White Sox debut after joining the club on a minors deal last winter.  He posted a 7.71 ERA over 21 innings with the Phillies over the 2017-19 seasons, and a 3.52 ERA, 2.48 K/BB, and 7.7 K/9 in 486 innings in Philadelphia’s farm system.  Anderson has started 94 of his 101 career games in the minors but only started once at the big league level, so the White Sox will likely deploy him out of the bullpen barring a rotation emergency.

Mejia, formerly of the Twins, Angels and Cardinals, was a top-100 prospect at his best but has yet to put things together at the game’s top level. Now 26 years old, Mejia was unscored upon in 9 1/3 minor league innings across multiple organizations this year but was hit hard in the Majors, logging a 6.61 ERA (4.97 FIP, 5.98 xFIP) with an ugly 30-to-21 K/BB ratio in 31 1/3 innings.

Mejia did make 21 respectable starts for the Twins in 2017 (4.50 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 4.0 BB/9) at just 24 years of age, creating some optimism that he could settle in as the fourth starter he’d been projected as in the upper minors. But blister issues and a left wrist injury shortened Mejia’s 2018 season, and he wasn’t able to regain his footing in 2019. The White Sox don’t look to have room for him in the rotation, but he could provide depth in Triple-A or look to carve out a bullpen spot.

Anderson, 25, enjoyed solid numbers in Double-A and Triple-A in 2017-18 but hasn’t found success in the big leagues yet. He’s thrown 21 innings for the Phillies but been hammered for 18 earned runs on 29 hits and nine walks with 19 strikeouts. He’s only yielded one home run in that time, but he’s been plagued by a sky-high .389 BABIP in the Majors. Anderson notched a combined 3.72 ERA in 111 1/3 innings in Triple-A from 2017-18 but slumped to a 5.77 mark in 48 1/3 frames there in 2019.

The 30-year-old Skole appeared in 27 games for the White Sox in 2019, hitting .208/.275/.236 in 80 plate appearances. He posted a .248/.384/.497 batting line with 21 long balls in Triple-A Charlotte this past season — his second in the White Sox organization. Skole has a generally productive track record throughout the minors thanks largely to his persistent knack for drawing walks.

Brugman, 28, hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since his 2017 debut with the A’s, when he batted .266/.346/.343 in 162 plate appearances. He’s been with the Orioles and Mariners since that time, including a terrific .283/.363/.601 slash in 331 plate appearances with Seattle’s Triple-A club in 2019. Brugman, though, has never shown that type of power in the past, so those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt considering the juiced ball in Triple-A this past season; the outfielder’s 24 homers in 2019 matched his combined total from 2016-18. Brugman has long had solid walk rates, though, and he’s a solid defender who can play all three outfield spots even though he’s consistently posted below-average power numbers excluding the 2019 surge.

Anderson, a 25th-round pick in 2012, has had success at times as a starter in the upper minors. But he has struggled in limited MLB action, coughing up 18 earned runs on 29 hits in 21 total frames.

It has been a rough overall campaign for Anderson, who has been sidelined since late June and was ineffective before that. Over 11 starts at the Triple-A level, he managed only a 5.77 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 5.0 BB/9.

3:38PM: The Phillies have designated right-handed pitcher Drew Anderson for assignment, according to an official team announcement. He’ll be dropped from the team’s 40-man roster, along with Adam Morgan and Jerad Eickhoff, who were transferred to the 60-day injured list.

The 25-year-old Anderson has only managed to get into two games for the Phillies this year, tossing six innings in his third big-league season. It hasn’t been a promising showing for Anderson, who surrendered five runs in those six innings, walking as many batters as he struck out. Unfortunately, those numbers represented a continuation of his struggles in his first two trials in Philadelphia. For his career, Anderson is sporting an unsightly 7.71 ERA over 21 innings of work.

What’s more, the minor-league numbers for Anderson haven’t been much more encouraging. While he’s excelled at Double-A, it seems that Triple-A has represented a significant barrier; across three seasons at the level, Anderson owns a 4.34 ERA while striking out only 7.4 batters per nine innings. If he clears waivers, he could accept an outright assignment and remain within the Philly organization — if he isn’t released. Otherwise, another team could take a chance on him and hope to turn him into a viable reliever.