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Shaun Anderson

Rangers Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment

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The Rangers announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Shaun Anderson for assignment. In a corresponding move, right-hander Gerson Garabito had his contract selected from the minors. Garabito is scheduled to start today’s game against the Twins, which would be his major league debut.

Anderson was selected to the club’s roster earlier this month after signing on a minor league deal back in April. A third-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2016 draft, Anderson made his big league debut with San Francisco in 2019 and pitched to mediocre results in a swing role, with a 5.44 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 96 innings of work across 28 appearances (16 starts). Major league innings have been hard to come by for the righty since then, as he made just 35 big league appearances across five organizations between 2020 and 2022. The results left something to be desired, as well; he pitched to a 6.85 ERA with a 5.57 FIP in that time.

The righty’s struggles at the big league level led him to try his luck overseas during the 2023 campaign, and he signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s KIA Tigers. Anderson pitched as a starter with the club and found some success overseas, with a 3.76 ERA in his 14 appearances. He returned to stateside ball late in the campaign on a minor league deal with the Phillies, but his improved results in Korea did not carry over as he surrendered 28 runs (including 11 homers) in 11 starts for the club’s Triple-A affiliate down the stretch.

That didn’t stop the Rangers from signing Anderson to a minor league deal back in April, however, and he was selected to the roster earlier this month. Anderson ultimately made just two appearances in a Rangers uniform before being DFA’d. In 3 1/3 innings of work, he allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three in a performance that was good for a 5.40 ERA and 2.23 FIP. The Rangers will now have seven days to trade Anderson or attempt to pass him through waivers. As a player who has already been outrighted previously in his career, Anderson would have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency should he clear waivers.

Replacing Anderson on the club’s roster is Garabito, a 28-year-old righty who made his pro debut with the Royals back in 2013. Garabito worked his way through the minor leagues across seven seasons in the Royals system before electing minor league free agency and joining the Giants, for whom he pitched to a 4.71 ERA in 11 appearances at the Triple-A level during 2021 season. Garabito subsequently left affiliated ball to pitch in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic over the next three seasons, racking up a 2.86 ERA in 69 1/3 innings of work during that time.

Garabito returned to stateside ball when he landed with the Rangers on a minor league deal prior to the 2024 season and has impressed in seven appearances split between the Double- and Triple-A levels with a 2.05 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work with an enticing 30.8% strikeout rate. The Rangers evidently have seen enough for Garabito to offer him his first shot at big league action, which figures to come against Minnesota later today amid a slew of injuries to the Rangers rotation that have left key pieces such as Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray sidelined.

Rangers Select Shaun Anderson, Transfer Max Scherzer To 60-Day Injured List

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The Rangers announced they’ve selected right-hander Shaun Anderson onto the MLB roster. Texas optioned Jack Leiter back to Triple-A Round Rock in a corresponding move. To create a 40-man roster spot, the Rangers transferred Max Scherzer from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list in what is essentially a procedural transaction.

Anderson caught on with Texas on a minor league contract last month. It marked his second stint in the organization, as he spent a couple weeks in the system in 2021 when the Rangers claimed him off waivers. They waived him themselves before getting him into a major league game, but Anderson could now get a shot to make his team debut.

If he does, it’ll be the 29-year-old’s first major league action since 2022. He made one appearance for the Blue Jays that season. Anderson opened last season in Korea and finished the year in Triple-A with the Phillies. He has made four starts for Round Rock over the past few weeks, turning in a 2.53 ERA over 21 1/3 innings. The Florida product has punched out 26.2% of opponents against a tidy 4.8% walk rate to earn his way back to the big leagues.

Anderson has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons overall. Most of his experience came with the Giants as a rookie back in 2019. He has seen more limited action divided between San Francisco, Minnesota, San Diego, Baltimore and Toronto since then. Anderson owns a 5.84 ERA over 135 2/3 career innings. His 17.1% strikeout percentage and 9.9% walk rate are each a little worse than the respective league averages. Anderson has a stronger Triple-A track record, totaling a 3.80 ERA in 270 1/3 frames at that level. He still has an option remaining, so the Rangers can move him between Arlington and Round Rock without exposing him to waivers now that he’s on the 40-man roster.

Texas essentially had an open 40-man spot given Scherzer’s status. The 60-day minimum backdates to Opening Day, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in around two weeks time. It doesn’t appear as if he’ll be ready before then. While Scherzer once seemed on track for a mid-May return following his offseason back surgery, his timetable has been delayed by thumb soreness. Scherzer received a cortisone shot over the weekend to address nerve irritation.

The future Hall of Famer told reporters today that he has recently undergone imaging on his triceps, elbow and neck (X link via Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today). That came back clean and he is set to resume throwing. He’ll need to build back for another minor league rehab assignment, though, so he’s unlikely to be ready for MLB action before the start of June.

Rangers Sign Shaun Anderson, Collin Wiles To Minor League Deals

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The Rangers have signed righties Shaun Anderson and Collin Wiles to minor league pacts, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Both pitchers have been assigned to Triple-A Round Rock.

This will mark the 29-year-old Anderson’s second stint in the Rangers organization. Texas claimed him off waivers from the Twins in 2021, but he lasted less than a month in the organization before being designated for assignment and claimed by the Orioles.

A former third-round pick by the Red Sox, Anderson has pitched in parts of four big league seasons, totaling 135 2/3 frames with an unsightly 5.84 ERA. Fielding-independent marks like FIP and SIERA are only a bit more favorable, at 5.00 and 5.24, respectively. The 6’6″ Anderson doesn’t throw especially hard (career 93 mph average fastball) but has excellent extension and tantalizing spin rates that have at times resulted in plus swinging-strike rates. He hasn’t been consistent enough at inducing whiffs, however, as evidenced by a career 17.1% strikeout rate. He’s walked 9.9% of his opponents in the big leagues.

Anderson opened the 2023 season with the KBO’s Kia Tigers and pitched reasonably well, tossing 79 innings with a 3.76 ERA, 19% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 61.7% ground-ball rate. That run preceded a Triple-A look with the Phillies, where he pitched to a 4.85 ERA in 52 innings with diminished strikeout and grounder rates. In a total of 249 Triple-A innings, Anderson has a 3.90 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.

Wiles, also 29, reached the majors with the A’s in 2022 but has just 9 2/3 innings of big league experience. He allowed five earned runs on 11 hits and two walks with nine punchouts in that brief cup of coffee. This minor league deal marks a return to the organization that originally selected him with the No. 53 overall pick of the 2012 draft. Wiles was in the Rangers’ system from 2012-21 before departing as a minor league free agent and signing with Oakland. He racked up 143 1/3 innings in their Triple-A rotation and made four relief appearances in the majors.

Wiles doesn’t have standout run-prevention numbers (career 4.57 ERA) or strikeout rates (17%) in parts of 10 minor league seasons. He sports plus command though, as evidenced by a career 5.3% walk rate that’s actually improved as he’s climbed the minor league ladder (4.8% walk rate in both Double-A and Triple-A). Wiles signed the Brewers on a minor league deal in the 2022-23 offseason but wound up requiring shoulder surgery and didn’t pitch in 2023.

Both right-handers will give the Rangers some bullpen depth at a time when Brock Burke, Josh Sborz and Jonathan Hernandez are all on the injured list.

Phillies Sign Shaun Anderson To Minor League Deal

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The Phillies have signed right-hander Shaun Anderson to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been pitching for the KBO’s Kia Tigers this year but was released a couple of weeks ago.

Anderson, 28, has a bit of major league experience. He appeared in 63 games from 2019 to 2022, suiting up for the Giants, Twins, Orioles, Padres and Blue Jays. He registered a combined 5.84 earned run average in that time, along with a 17.1% strikeout rate, 9.9% walk rate and 41% ground ball rate. Though he broke in as a starter, he moved to more of a relief role over time.

The righty was outrighted by the Blue Jays last summer and qualified for free agency at season’s end. He then signed with the Kia Tigers and headed to Korea this year, posting solid results there as he returned to a starting role. He was able to make 14 starts, tossing 79 innings with a 3.76 ERA. His strikeout and walk numbers were fairly similar to his MLB work, but he was able to get grounders at a 61.7% clip.

Despite those solid results, Anderson was put on waivers when the Tigers signed Thomas Pannone. KBO teams are only allowed three roster spots for non-Korean players and the club decided to nudge Anderson out in favor of Pannone.

Anderson will now make his way back to North America, presumably to join Triple-A Lehigh Valley in the near future. The Phillies’ rotation consists of Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suárez, Taijuan Walker and Cristopher Sánchez, but their depth recently took a hit as prospect Andrew Painter has been recommended for Tommy John surgery. Anderson will give the club another non-roster option to potentially call upon should the need arise, though they could also move him back to a relief role.

If Anderson is able to make it onto Philly’s roster at any point, he has one option year remaining and just under two years of major league service time, meaning he could be cheaply retained for future seasons as well.

KBO’s Kia Tigers Sign Thomas Pannone, Place Shaun Anderson On Waivers

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The Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they have signed left-hander Thomas Pannone, with right-hander Shaun Anderson placed on waivers in a corresponding move. Hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net.

Pannone, now 29, was with the Kia Tigers for the second half of last season. He tossed 82 2/3 innings over 14 starts with a 2.72 ERA. He struck out 21% of batters faced while walking 6.9% of them. This winter, he returned to North America and signed a minor league deal with the Brewers. He reported to their Triple-A club and threw 53 1/3 innings over 11 appearances with a 2.70 ERA in that time.

That solid performance got him selected to the big league roster a week ago but he was designated for assignment after just one appearance of 2 2/3 innings. He was released yesterday and will now rejoin the Kia Tigers. He previously played in the majors with the Blue Jays in 2018 and 2019. When combined with his lone outing this year, he has a 5.46 ERA in 118 2/3 innings over 50 major league contests.

KBO teams are only allowed three roster spots for non-Korean players, so Pannone’s signing had to come with a corresponding move. That will be Anderson, 28, who signed with the Tigers in the winter. He made 14 starts this year, tossing 79 innings with a 3.76 ERA. He only struck out 19% of opponents but kept the ball on the ground at a 61.7% rate. Despite those fairly solid results, the Tigers will opt to give Pannone a try and have let Anderson go.

Shaun Anderson Signs With KBO’s Kia Tigers

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NOVEMBER 29: The Tigers have finalized an agreement with Anderson on a one-year deal that guarantees him $700K (h/t to Ji-heon Bae). He’ll receive a $100K signing bonus on top of a $600K salary, and the deal contains $300K in potential incentives. Anderson is represented by Wasserman.

NOVEMBER 26: The Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization are in talks with free agent right-hander Shaun Anderson, according to Ji-heon Bae of Sports Chunchu (hat tip to MyKBO.net’s Dan Kurtz).

The 28-year-old Anderson has pitched in the last four Major League seasons, though his participation in the 2022 campaign was limited to a single inning of work with the Blue Jays.  The remainder of Anderson’s year was spent at Triple-A Buffalo, where he posted a 3.58 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate, and 8.7% walk rate over 88 innings.  Anderson started 15 of 36 appearances, though some of those “starts” were as an opener.

Originally a third-round pick for the Red Sox in the 2016 draft, Anderson has bounced around quite a bit during his pro career, and he has already pitched for five different teams over his four MLB seasons.  After spending the 2019-20 seasons with the Giants, Anderson took the mound for the Twins, Orioles, and Padres in 2021, before his one-game cup of coffee with Toronto last year.  The right-hander was also briefly part of the Rangers organization for some of the 2021 campaign.

Anderson hasn’t had much success at the MLB level, posting a 5.84 ERA over 135 2/3 career innings.  He has a more solid track record in the minors (3.72 ERA in 416 2/3 frames) but he has never been a big strikeout pitcher, and Anderson’s grounder rates have also tailed off after topping the 50% threshold earlier in his career.

Multi-inning relief work might have been Anderson’s best way of finding a niche to stay on a big league roster, but he’ll now head to South Korea to try and revive his fortunes as a starting pitcher.  Former Major Leaguers Thomas Pannone and Sean Nolin pitched with the Kia Tigers in 2022, but Bae writes that the Tigers might not retain either hurler as they look to overhaul their rotation.

15 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the postseason rolls along, players hit minor league free agency daily. It’s customary each offseason for dozens of players to hit the open market, separate from the players who reach MLB free agency at the end of the World Series based on the expiration of their contracts while having six-plus years of MLB service time.

Any player who is not on his team’s 40-man roster at season’s end but has three-plus years of MLB service, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minor leagues has the right to elect free agency. Everyone in today’s group falls under that umbrella. The majority will take minor league deals over the winter, although one or two could find a big league deal as a bench piece or middle-inning reliever.

MLBTR covered 34 players who qualified for minor league free agency last week. We’ll periodically provide updates as plenty more hit the open market, as reflected on the MiLB.com transactions log.

Pitchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Blue Jays Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have designated righty Shaun Anderson for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to fellow righty Matt Peacock, whose previously reported waiver claim has now been announced by the team.

Anderson’s stay on the 40-man roster lasted a bit less than two weeks, as he was initially selected in late June. He made a lone big league appearance, serving up two runs in a mop-up relief inning during a win over the Red Sox. The 27-year-old has otherwise spent the entire season with the Jays’ top affiliate in Buffalo, posting a 3.88 ERA through 48 2/3 innings. That’s solid run prevention, but Anderson has only struck out 20.1% of opposing hitters at the top minor league level.

While the former third-round pick has spent most of this season in the minors, Anderson has a fairly lengthy track record in the big leagues. He’s appeared in parts of four campaigns, with the majority of his work coming as a rookie with the 2019 Giants. He posted a 5.44 ERA through 96 innings that year, starting 16 of his 28 outings. Over the next few seasons, Anderson has worked exclusively in relief at the major league level, although he’s gotten six starts in Buffalo this year. Altogether, he owns a 5.84 ERA in 135 2/3 MLB frames split between five different teams (San Francisco, the Twins, Orioles, Padres and Jays).

Toronto will have a week to trade Anderson or place him on waivers. The Jays succeeded in passing him through waivers last fall after grabbing him from San Diego. That previous outright means Anderson would have the right to refuse another assignment in favor of minor league free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Blue Jays Select Shaun Anderson

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve selected righty Shaun Anderson onto the MLB roster, with reliever Jeremy Beasley optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. A 40-man roster spot was created by transferring Hyun Jin Ryu from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list.

Toronto grabbed Anderson off waivers from the Padres last November. They passed him through waivers a couple weeks later, keeping him in the minor leagues without necessitating a 40-man spot. The right-hander had been a fairly desirable bullpen depth option, having bounced between Minnesota, Texas and Baltimore before landing in San Diego. Altogether, he struggled to an 8.49 ERA through 23 1/3 innings with three clubs.

Anderson has spent this season with the Bisons, working 46 innings over 14 appearances (including six starts). The 27-year-old has a 3.91 ERA, striking out a below-average 19.7% of opponents but demonstrating strong control as a multi-inning pitcher. Anderson still has a minor league option year remaining, so the Jays can bounce him from Toronto to Buffalo for the remainder of the season.

Ryu’s IL transfer was a formality whenever the club needed a 40-man roster spot. The veteran southpaw recently underwent Tommy John surgery. He’ll miss the rest of this season and most or all of next year as well.

The Giants Picked Up A Productive Outfielder In An Under-The-Radar Deal Last Winter

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The Giants had quite a few unexpected contributors last year en route to a surprising franchise-record 107 wins. Among that group was a player quietly acquired a month before the start of Spring Training. An unheralded pickup at the time, LaMonte Wade Jr. turned out to be an impressive find who could be a valuable part of the San Francisco outfield for the next few seasons.

Last February, San Francisco picked up Wade from the Twins as part of a one-for-one swap that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota. Wade, 27, had briefly appeared in each of the prior two seasons for the Twins but had a grand total of 113 big league plate appearances under his belt. A .211/.336/.347 hitter in that time, he had an impressive strikeout and walk profile but little else on his MLB resume.

Yet the Giants saw something of interest in Wade, whether based on their scouts’ evaluations or his minor league numbers. He’d hit .246/.392/.356 in Triple-A in 2019. The left-handed hitter only popped five home runs, but his 14.4% strikeout rate and 16.8% walk percentage at the minors’ top level were both far better than the league average. It was an interesting showing, but Wade’s lack of power was concerning for a player whom most scouting reports suggested was best suited for the corner outfield.

It’s easy to understand why the Twins front office felt that moving Wade was subtracting a depth option from an area of organizational strength. They already had Byron Buxton and Max Kepler entrenched in the outfield, and top prospects Alex Kirilloff, Royce Lewis and Trevor Larnach all looked to be approaching themselves. (Kirilloff had debuted in the majors during the 2020 postseason). Wade wasn’t at the level of those other players, and he was entering his final minor league option year.

Yet the deal backfired for Minnesota essentially immediately. Anderson allowed 12 runs in 8 2/3 innings with the Twins before being designated for assignment. Claimed off waivers by the Rangers, he bounced around between a few organizations before finally clearing waivers last month. He’s a member of the Blue Jays now but no longer occupies a 40-man roster spot.

Wade, on the other hand, had a quality showing in his first extended MLB look. He hit .253/.326/.482 with 18 home runs over 381 plate appearances for San Francisco. He became a bit more aggressive at the plate, and his walk and strikeout numbers (8.7% and 23.4%, respectively) were actually fairly ordinary.

Instead, Wade hit for a surprising amount of power. In addition to the 18 homers, he rapped 17 doubles and three triples. That’s a 28-homer, 27-double pace over 600 plate appearances (roughly the equivalent of a full season’s worst of playing time). His .229 isolated power far outpaced the .171 league average. According to Statcast, his average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard contact rate were each a fair bit better than the league mark.

That’s not to say the Twins gave away a future star. The Giants deployed Wade almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, leveraging their strong depth to put him in position to succeed. As a result of the heavy platooning, his rate numbers were probably better than they’d have been had he been asked to play everyday and drawn more assignments against tough lefties. As scouting reports had suggested, Wade was also primarily limited to the corner outfield and first base, only picking up two starts in center field.

Not all deals have to bring back All-Stars, though. The Giants have already gotten the better end of the swap, and Wade looks to have a good chance of being a quality contributor within the San Francisco outfield mix over the next few seasons. If that proves to be the case, the deal will be a nice feather in the cap of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and his staff — an example of a team successfully pulling from another organization’s area of depth to unearth a valuable addition to their roster.

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