Brett Anderson Should be On New York Yankees’ Radar this Offseason
By Christopher Gamble
@chriswgamble
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The New York Yankees have shown a willingness to take a chance on pitchers coming off significant injuries. They re-signed Andrew Bailey to a Minor League deal as he continues to come back from a torn labrum. This offseason, the Yankees could take another low-risk, high-reward arm in Brett Anderson.
Anderson appeared in only eight games last season with the Colorado Rockies after requiring back surgery. He will be 27 next season and has had a decent amount of success when healthy. He owns a 27-32 record, 3.73 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 386 strikeouts in 494 innings. Last season, Anderson had a 2.91 ERA and 1.31 WHIP with the Rockies, not bad numbers considering his home games, few of them that there were, were at Coors Field.
There is a huge red flag with Anderson’s injury history and the Yankees’ rotation already has plenty of injury questions. However, Anderson, like Brandon McCarthy, is a much better pitcher than the numbers have shown and the upside is still there despite the injury history.
If the Yankees are serious about not pursuing the big three starters of Max Scherzer, James Shields and Jon Lester and instead focusing on mid-rotation arms like McCarthy, Jason Hammel and Chris Capuano then adding Anderson makes complete sense. It makes even more sense that he is a left-hander.
Competition for Anderson’s services should be pretty thick as teams try to load up on arms at bargain prices. However, the Yankees have shown a willingness to give an extra year or a few more dollars to pitchers they believe can help. Ivan Nova won’t be back until June at the earliest. C.C. Sabathia’s knees are ready to collapse at any moment. Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow is a huge concern. Hiroki Kuroda, Chris Capuano and Brandon McCarthy are free agents. Shane Greene is promising but still young.
The Yankees could offer Anderson an incentive laden contract and hope that he is ready to contribute at some point this season. He could turn out to be a Brandon McCrathy-like find for 2015. If the Yankees are serious about adding depth at reasonable prices then Anderson should be a Yankee in 2015.
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