Surging through a dominant late-season stretch, the veteran right-hander’s elite underlying metrics and rising consistency are turning a risky offseason gamble into a reliable rotation cornerstone for Detroit.
Drew Anderson’s return to the major leagues was one of the more interesting bets the Tigers made last offseason. With each start, that bet is beginning to look more like something Detroit should carry into 2027.
Anderson gave the Tigers five scoreless innings Tuesday night in their 10-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing just two hits while walking three and striking out four. Detroit went to Jacob Waguespack to begin the sixth after Anderson had protected a 6-0 lead.
It was not a dominant outing in the traditional sense. Anderson had to navigate traffic, particularly in the third inning when three walks loaded the bases. But Alejandro Kirk grounded out to Hao-Yu Lee to end the inning, and Anderson settled back in from there. He allowed only one more hit before his night was over.
More importantly, Tuesday continued a pretty good stretch since Anderson moved into the rotation. Over his last four starts, beginning Aug. 28 against the Dodgers, Anderson has worked 20 2/3 innings with four earned runs, good for a 1.74 ERA. He has allowed only 10 hits during that stretch while striking out 18.
The 13 walks are the obvious eh factor, and they keep this from being some complete transformation, but hitters simply have not done much damage against him. Even expanding the sample to his last six starts, Anderson has allowed 10 earned runs over 30 2/3 innings, a 2.93 ERA.
That matters because Detroit does not have to negotiate a new contract with Anderson this winter. The Tigers signed him for $7 million last offseason with a $10 million club option for 2027. At this point, picking up that option is beginning to make more sense.
Anderson now has a 3.62 ERA across 102 innings this season, but the case goes beyond ERA. His Statcast profile contains some useful building blocks. His 35.1% chase rate ranks in the 90th percentile, his 27.6% whiff rate is in the 70th percentile and his 25.3% strikeout rate is in the 71st percentile. He has also generated a 49% ground-ball rate, placing him in the 83rd percentile.
The command remains the area to watch. His 9.9% walk rate sits well below average, and both his breaking-ball and offspeed run values have been poor over the full season. His four-seam fastball, however, has been a legitimate weapon, producing a plus-7 pitch run value according to the Statcast data.
That makes Anderson somewhat difficult to evaluate if you look only at the season totals. He has not suddenly become a No. 2 starter at age 32. What Detroit may have discovered, however, is a pitcher capable of giving the club competent starts while also having experience pitching out of the bullpen. For $10 million, that flexibility has value.
Detroit's rotation will look different in 2027, and the Tigers should still be looking for upside rather than assuming Anderson has solved one of the rotation spots. But after initially opening the year in relief, he has done just about everything possible to make himself part of that conversation.
At the very least, exercising Anderson's option is looking a lot less like a projection and more like keeping a pitcher who has already shown Detroit, he can handle the job.
