M’s prospect Kade Anderson could benefit from new challenge

At this point, it would be a surprise to see anything but a dominant outing from Seattle Mariners pitching prospect Kade Anderson.

Anderson, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 draft, has put together the type of sensational start to his pro career that most players can only dream of.

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In his first five starts with the Double-A Arkansas Travelers, the left-hander has dominated opponents to the tune of a sparkling 0.37 ERA. He’s allowed only one run over 24 1/3 innings of work, striking out 38 batters while surrendering just four walks along the way.

Last week, ESPN’s Jeff Passan declared to Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk that Anderson has already proven he’s mastered Double-A hitters, even going as far as saying the 21 year old is big-league ready now.

When Passan joined Brock and Salk on Tuesday, he made the case for why he’d like to see Anderson take on the challenge of being promoted to Triple-A.

“I actually love the idea of moving Kade Anderson to Triple-A because Triple-A is populated with former big leaguers, and guys who are not gonna swing at your crap, and guys who know how to take professional at-bats and guys who are going to grind you down,” Passan said. “And look, if a guy takes good at-bats and has power, he’s going to be in the big leagues. So there’s always something missing there (with Triple-A hitters), but it’s a different sort of challenge that I think somebody like Kade Anderson could really stand to have before he makes to the big leagues.”

A move to Triple-A would seem like that natural progression for Anderson. However, it is contrary to how the Mariners have handled their top pitching prospects in recent years. Among Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller, Gilbert was the only to pitch in Triple-A before the majors, making one start with Tacoma at the beginning of the 2021 season before being called up to the majors. Kirby, Woo and Miller all went straight from Double-A to the majors.

One benefit Mariners pitching prospects get from skipping Triple-A is not having to pitch in the hitter friendly ballparks in the Pacific Coast League. Instead, they get to go from pitching in the pitcher friendly ballparks of the Texas League to playing half their games at the most pitcher friendly park in MLB in T-Mobile Park.

But Passan likes the idea of Anderson potentially taking some lumps in the PCL.

“I’m OK with that. I want Kade Anderson, if I’m the Mariners, to get punched in the mouth,” Passan said. “I want that to happen because it’s been a long, long time since it has. Whether it was his track record at LSU, back in high school, he’s always (been) the best player on the field and punching out a dozen plus every game. That’s the path of the dominant starting pitcher through the amateur levels and all the way up through the minor leagues.

“So, I think you could put Kade Anderson in Triple-A tomorrow and it that would be perfectly fine. But if they want to keep him down a little bit longer and let him show that he doesn’t belong at that level even more, I don’t think rushing Kade Anderson is necessarily an important thing.”

As for when Anderson will get the call to the majors, Passan doesn’t see any point in rushing that decision either, especially with Miller’s expected return soon from the injured list leading to an already-crowded rotation at the major league level.

“Maybe we get to the halfway point of the season and the M’s are in a bad place and they’re arguing with themselves and saying, you know, I think it’s probably a good idea to have the 26 best players in our organization up on the big league roster right now,” Passan said of calling up Anderson to the majors. “And I’ll say this, Kade Anderson’s one of their 26 best right now. I firmly believe that, but that doesn’t mean that, at this point, he should be in the big leagues.

“There are complications. I mean, it’s already going to be weird enough when Bryce Miller comes up. What’s going to happen to the rotation then? Adding Kade Anderson into that just seems like a an unnecessary self-inflicted wound.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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