Tampa Bay Rays’ Nick Anderson: The Next Superstar Reliever

Nick Anderson

Finally, this brings us to Nick Anderson. He made his major league debut last season at 28-years-old. Anderson turned 29 in July and showed Major League Baseball what it had been missing.

Anderson has a rising fastball that reaches 98mph. He has a break-neck 12-6 curveball at 83-85 that can seem impossible to hit after seeing the fastball.

By mid-season, Anderson had established himself with the Marlins to earn a few save opportunities (few and far between for the lowly fish) he ended up earning one save but his strikeout numbers caught the attention of someone in the Rays’ front office.

Through 43.2 innings pitched with the Marlins, Anderson had racked up 69 strikeouts. On top of the crazy swing-and-miss numbers, he walking a respectable 3.3 batters per nine.

The Rays pounced on Anderson at the trade deadline. They sent opener Ryne Stanek and highly regarded prospect, Jesus Sanchez for Anderson and Trevor Richards.

If the Marlins thought they were selling high on the strikeout artist, they were wrong.

Once he donned a Tampa Bay jersey, Anderson was even better.

He posted a 2.11 ERA with the Rays and lowered his walks per nine from 3.3 to 0.8 with the Rays. He walked two batters with the Rays.

With the Marlins he posted a fantastic 14.2 strikeouts per nine, but with the Rays, it was ludicrous-speed17.3 Ks per nine.

Nick Anderson is nasty. He is Josh Hader nasty. On the next slide, we will take a look at how Nick Anderson did the unimaginable last season and actually put up numbers worthy of comparing to the best relief pitcher in the game, Josh Hader.

Josh Hader Comparison

Of Relief pitchers with more than 60 innings pitched in 2019, Hader and Anderson were the top two in K%, second and third in xFIP, and first and third in Ks per nine.

Here’s how Anderson compared to Hader in 2019. 

• BB%: Hader (6.9%) / Anderson (6.1%)
• BB/9: Hader (2.4) / Anderson (2.5)
• K%: Hader (47.8%) / Anderson (41.7%)
• K/9: Hader (16.4) / Anderson (15.2)
• HR/9: Hader (1.8) / Anderson (1.1)
• xFIP: Hader (2.36) / Anderson (2.44)

The Rays have plenty of extremely capable relievers loaded in their bullpen, but Nick Anderson could be on the verge of Josh Hader-esque superstardom.

When he first arrived to the Rays last season, he struck out 17 batters in his first seven innings while allowing zero earned runs. In case you didn’t do the math, 17 of his first 21 outs were by way of the strikeout.

There were three guys in all of baseball that struck out 40% or more of the batters they faced (min. 60 IP) and Nick Anderson was one of them. Another one was Josh Hader. The thing that separated Hader and Anderson from the third player (Matt Barnes) was the ability to keep the walks to a minimum while the Ks hit the ceiling. Hader and Anderson had walk-rates of about 50% of what Barnes posted.

Anderson should have the first crack at closing duties for the Rays, although the Rays do not shy away from playing matchups. They have plenty of capable arms to entrust Anderson to other crucial moments in the game. Josh Hader became one of the biggest names in baseball out of the bullpen before he was a closer.

No matter where the Rays decide to deploy Nick Anderson, if he continues to put up these types of numbers he will be representing the Rays on a national stage at the All-Star Game as the American League version of Josh Hader.

Who do you think will lead the Rays in saves in 2020?