Mariners prospect Kade Anderson extends long scoreless streak

Kade Anderson had yet another dominant start in Double-A Arkansas.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

The Seattle Mariners’ highly touted pitching prospect extended his scoreless streak to 27 2/3 innings, tossing six shutout frames of two-hit ball in Arkansas’ 4-0 win over Frisco on Friday night. The 21-year-old left-hander struck out eight and walked one while recording his fifth consecutive scoreless start.

Mariners GM details the plan for Kade Anderson, Ryan Sloan

Anderson, the No. 3 overall pick in last summer’s MLB Draft, has a dazzling 1.02 ERA over his first 12 professional starts with Arkansas this season. The 6-foot-2 southpaw has piled up 90 strikeouts and just eight walks over 61 2/3 innings.

Anderson has allowed just seven runs all season – a feat even more impressive when considering that five of those runs came in the fourth inning of his May 15 start against Northwest Arkansas. That means Anderson has allowed just two runs over his other 60 2/3 innings this season.

Anderson leads the Texas League in ERA, strikeouts, WHIP (0.65), opponents’ batting average (.152), strikeout rate (41.1%) and walk rate (3.7%).

Anderson didn’t pitch in the minors last summer due to his heavy workload at LSU, where he played a starring role in the Tigers’ 2025 national title run. The Madisonville, Louisiana, native posted a a 3.18 ERA with 180 strikeouts and 35 walks over 119 innings for LSU last season, capped by a three-hit shutout in Game 1 of the Men’s College World Series finals.

Anderson is ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 6 overall prospect and Baseball America’s No. 8 overall prospect.

Earlier this week, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander was asked during the Mariners Radio Network pregame show how soon Anderson and/or fellow highly touted pitching prospect Ryan Sloan could reach the majors. It’s been widely speculated that one or both of them could be added to the Mariners’ bullpen at some point, with Seattle’s starting rotation already crowded.

“They both have a chance to pitch for us later in the summer,” Hollander said. “Right now, Kade’s at (around 60) innings on the season. … Calling them both up now and putting them in a bullpen or a shortened role or sort of a fireman role would really inhibit their development long-term.

“You’re talking about capping their innings at something like 80 or 90 for the year if we did that, based on how many innings they’re likely to pitch out of a bullpen. And that really affects their ability to jump off of a platform for next year and not be shortened into like a four or five-month season next year.

“I think our plan is to let them pitch for as long as we can in Double-A,” he added. “If we got to the end of the year and we needed help with the major league team coming down the stretch and hopefully the playoffs, I think they both would be considerations for that.”

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