The Athletics are in agreement with reliever Nick Anderson on a minor league contract with an invite to big league camp, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. The Gaeta Sports Management client would be paid at a $1MM rate if he cracks the MLB roster.
Anderson made 12 appearances with the Rockies this past season. He allowed 10 runs over 14 2/3 innings, striking out 10 while issuing a pair of free passes. The 35-year-old righty pitched in Triple-A with the Cardinals, Rox and Mariners. He combined for a 5.26 earned run average over 38 outings despite striking out an above-average 27.1% of batters faced.
A veteran of six big league seasons, Anderson has moved around as a depth piece since excelling in leverage spots with the Rays from 2019-20. Anderson has missed bats in Triple-A over the past couple years but hasn’t translated that into many whiffs against MLB competition. He still has mid-90s velocity and a career 3.43 ERA over 177 big league outings. That has gotten him various looks on minor league contracts over the past couple years.
The A’s have one of the younger bullpens in MLB. None of their projected relievers have even two years of service time. They’ll surely make more impactful bullpen pickups over the next couple months, but it’s no surprise that they’re looking to add an experienced arm like Anderson to compete for a middle relief spot in Spring Training.
Flying Illini
look for these 1 year low cost deals to be the way forward for many clubs.
Low risk and low expense. That is what clubs do when they lokk at the industy as entertainment and winning is secondary. Of course the A’s aren’t going anywhere except Las Vegas.
Likewise, A’s should try and sign lefty Sean Newcomb. He was very efficient. They say Nuke wants to start though well hey that works too.