11:38am: Anderson is joining Seattle on a minor league deal, as noted by Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.
7:58am: Right-hander Nick Anderson has reached a deal with the Mariners, according to a report from Joel Sherman of the New York Post. It’s a somewhat unusual situation, as Anderson had been on the Rockies’ 40-man roster and pitched in an MLB game as recently as August 27. According to the transactions log on Anderson’s MLB.com profile page, the Rockies optioned Anderson to Triple-A on August 29 and he elected free agency just yesterday. Anderson has enough service time that he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent, so his departure from the organization might be related to Colorado’s decision to option him earlier this week.
In any case, Anderson now appears to be headed to the Mariners. It’s unclear is his agreement with Seattle is a major or minor league deal, but the Mariners would need to clear a 40-man roster spot to accommodate Anderson if he’s to be added to the roster. The 35-year-old hurler made 12 appearances for the Rockies this season and pitched to an ugly 6.14 ERA, but the vast majority of the damage against him came in a five-run debut outing on July 26. In 11 appearances during the month of August, Anderson posted a more respectable 3.29 ERA, albeit with a 4.95 FIP and a strikeout rate of just 19.2%.
That’s a far cry from what Anderson looked like at his peak effectiveness. The right-hander made his big league debut as a member of the Marlins in 2019 but was traded to the Rays by the end of the year. He was utterly dominant for Tampa in parts of three seasons from 2019 to 2021 with a 1.85 ERA, a 2.42 FIP, and a 42.5% strikeout rate. Elbow injuries limited him to just six innings in 2021 and cost him his entire 2022 campaign, however, and that brought an end to his time with the Rays. Anderson resurfaced as a member of the Braves back in 2023, and while his strikeout rate had dropped to 25.5% he was still a solid late-inning option with a 3.06 ERA and 3.09 FIP across 35 appearances.
The wheels started to come off last year for Anderson. In 49 appearances since the start of the 2024 campaign, he’s posted a lackluster 4.65 ERA and 5.00 FIP. Of course, it should be noted that he’s not gotten consistent MLB work in that time, though his Triple-A numbers don’t exactly inspire confidence either. Still, Anderson has been dominant in the past and is just two years removed from being a quality contributor from the bullpen. Perhaps joining an organization vaunted for its strong pitching staff like Seattle could help Anderson get right and contribute to the Mariners’ bullpen down the stretch this season. Andres Munoz and Matt Brash have the late innings covered for the team, but perhaps Anderson could push someone like Emerson Hancock out of the bullpen and back to Triple-A or even take the expanded roster spot that will open up for the organization tomorrow.
Hopefully Seattle can get him on-track. Though they’re known for fixing relievers, it’s worth noting they haven’t had much luck with that this year. The bullpen has been the greatest area of weakness for Seattle pretty much since opening day.
I would say that it hasn’t been that bad. Speier Bazardo Brash Munoz have been pretty good…
if you think the Mariners bullpen in 2025 hasn’t been that bad, then you probably haven’t been watching!
They’ve lost games in the late innings when guys like Casey F Leguinina and Taylor Saucedo have been in close games late. Inexcusable. You need more than 4 good relievers to make the postseason!
My point was they have 4 good relievers and yes the other 4 suck
Us mariners do not have a vaunted pitching staff in 2025, our starters get shelled in 3-4 innings and then our bullpen gets overused because of the innings they have to make up for
We’re just lucky our offense can keep us close in games
M’s bullpen has been middling this year in part because the SP’s have been really bad, taxing a bullpen with little depth and just 2-3 quality arms.
Now… WAIT A MINUTE people…
Yes the M’s SP’s have not been as good as last year, nor have they thrown as many innings as last year – ALL TRUE.
BUT… to say that these SP’s are bad is wrong. There have been injuries, and possible times these guys were asked to get back into the rotation a bit too soon, so there have been some bad starts… and even some poor starts just because it’s baseball.
There are a lot of teams that would love to have had this starting staff this year.
Off year – Yes
Bad year – not really
AS for the bullpen though…. uggghh
Throwing stuff at the wall and seeing which one sticks
Watching Muñoz implode recently has not been fun. Hancock doesn’t give me hope that he’s going to do anything but get injured if he has to pitch two games in a row. Here’s hoping Anderson gets called up tomorrow and has a miracle turnaround.