The Athletics have agreed to a contract with veteran lefty Brett Anderson, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s a minors deal, but other terms are not yet known.
If the deal becomes official, Anderson will return to the place where he first broke into the majors back in 2009. He turned in strong efforts for Oakland for parts of five seasons, working to a cumulative 3.81 ERA over 450 2/3 innings. Of course, that only worked out to about ninety frames per season, as Anderson dealt with a variety of injuries.
Anderson has had his successes since leaving the A’s, as well. In particular, he turned in a strong effort in 2015 for the Dodgers, making over thirty starts for the first time since his rookie year and finishing with a 3.69 ERA over 180 1/3 frames. That earned Anderson a qualifying offer, which he accepted for the ensuing season.
Unfortunately, Anderson has been neither healthy nor effective since that point. The 2016 season was mostly lost to back surgery. And Anderson limped to a 6.34 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 55 1/3 innings last year after landing with the Cubs on a make-good contract.
There are still some signs of hope, however. Anderson is still just 30 years of age. Last year, he still managed fairly typical fastball velocity, posted an 8.8% swinging-strike rate that was the second highest of his career, and generated a typically solid 49.2% groundball rate. Anderson also may have suffered from some poor fortune with a .364 BABIP and 60.9% strand rate, though Statcast felt the results largely matched expectations based upon the quality of contact he surrendered.
Probably minors deal.
It’s funny how many players the A’s have of former A’s. Treinan, Powell, Cahill, now Anderson, and Lowrie went back and fourth with the Astros
Don’t forget Casilla
Yes, I knew I was forgetting someone.
It would be ridiculously awesome if somehow the Blue Jays traded back Donaldson and Chapman is converted to SS. Chapman could probably play a really good SS, but that would never happen.
If you can dream it can only happen in Oakland!
They are getting the gang back together. Next they will be calling the Nationals asking about Gio
A number of those guys leaving had a lot to do with the A’s not being able to afford their prime years so they were shipped off. Makes some sense to see Anderson and Cahill back asreclamation projects when they’re dirt cheap.
They are like the Blues Brothers of baseball.
Maybe they can get Zito out of retirement and Braden too.
It was awesome to see Zito pitch in an A’s uniform one last time for his last season.
Teams just don’t learn…… he’s a broken down 30 year old that WILL NEVER STAY HEALTHY!
If is a minor league deal, is nothing to fret over. Teams still need depth.
I don’t get it either, he’s basically a highly paid spectator
I’m stunned that he’s only 30. I remember the stretch he had with the Dodgers in 2015 where it SEEMED like we were finally seeing Brett Anderson reach his potential, but injury derailed that as it always does. He took the QO and spent 2016 on the DL. So much potential, so few results.
He could be a breakout prospect this year for the Athelticos
Between Anderson, Cahill, and Gonzalez, when they were the A’s rotation, Scouts liked Anderson the best. This was before the injuries.
Ah, the picture boy for why salaries in baseball are ridiculous. He has earned nearly $50 million in his MLB career while pitching 741 innings. I’ll save you the trouble of having to do the math — that’s $67,287 per inning pitched in his career.
Well when you put it that way…. lol.
It’s numbers and dollars like those that make teams shy away from spending big money. Not really much value for his $50mm in my book.
Yes, I truly hope you never get hurt doing your job and your billionaire employer just decides you shouldn’t get paid.
I assure you that if injuries prevented you or me from performing our work duties our employers would move on to someone that can. I’m not blaming Anderson, I blame the owners for handing out massive contracts to a guy that they can’t count on to take the ball. Any prospective employer for you, me, or anyone else here would be reluctant to give hire any of us if they knew that we would only be able to make it in to work half the time (or less).
If an employer decided not to hire you because of your health issues then that employer would almost certainly not be an employer for long, as it is quite illegal to refuse to hire someone because of health issues.
You’re being obtuse. The point is that owner have continued to pay this guy as if he’s a starter that they can count on and history has shown that he can’t be counted on. There is nothing illegal about choosing not to hire a pitcher that can’t be counted take his turn in the rotation. In your world I guess pitchers who are unable to return to form after TJ or other arm injuries should still be given multi-million dollar contracts because it’s illegal to refuse to hire them due to health issues. Madness!
Right, like employers are being run out of business because the discriminate against certain races, or religions, or sexual orientation, or weight. You’re living in a dream world if you believe that.
Baseball isn’t bound by the ADA, as far as I know, and I’m not advocating for teams to be “forced” to employ Anderson, of course, but teams also have internal risk/reward calculuses they use to decide to sign oft-injured players. Mark prior, for example, continued getting contracts long after he last pitched in a game because teams thought he might eventually get healthy. Brandon Webb, as well.
I think my general disagreement is with this notion that these guys shouldn’t be making money if they got hurt, NFL style. (Pro football contracts are not guaranteed and players often get released, without pay, for being injured, which is immoral to me).
(And Anderson pitched many, many more innings in his career than just the ones in the majors)
Yes, but they’re not paying him millions of dollars a year to pitch in the minors.
No, but your argument was that he pitched just 741 innings or whatever. He has thrown more than that.
My argument was that he was paid nearly $50 million and in return for that he pitched 741 innings. Should we also include the number of pitches he made to his kids at home? Would that satisfy you?
No, but I think the innings he threw in the minors and in college and etc. should count towards his injury history. No need to get angry about it.
He did get a QO from the dodgers that year and didn’t make more than a few starts if I remember correctly. So that helped inflate that number with the ~17 mil he pulled in that year.
He was out for the vast majority of 2016 after giving us a taste of his potential in 2015.
“Anderson will return to the place where he first broke.”
Stop. Print.
Hey didn’t you guys forget about Mulder too
Don’t forget about Hudson
Damn you guys beat me to the punch
Here comes Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder
Almost forgot Rich Harden
Dana Eveland?
Anyone want to join an auction fantasy baseball league?
No.
Next Ben Sheets? Just kidding ;) Good luck, Brett!
Justin Duchscherer!!
I totally forgot him. Don’t even remember now what happened to him. He had good numbers in his las year.
This guy will sneeze and be on the DL