SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Mariners sure seem like they grow homegrown starting pitchers on trees, and Kade Anderson is quickly becoming the latest branch to grow.
The No. 3 overall pick in last year’s MLB Draft was at it again in Friday afternoon’s 5-1 win against the Rangers -- in the zone and off the barrel over three scoreless innings.
The one hit allowed was a double that Ezequiel Duran inside-outted against a curveball in 1-2 count, and he was stranded there. The two strikeouts were both left-on-left and via sliders, to Brandon Nimmo and Tyler Wade. The walks were nonexistent.
“When you play at this level, there are so many good hitters that you don't even realize who's up,” Anderson said. “They're all good. So when you really have that mindset, it really helps you understand that it doesn't matter who's in the box. This is my plan. This is how I'm going to go do it.”
COMPLETE MARINERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
He grew into more velocity as the outing progressed, from 92.9 mph with his four-seam fastball in the first inning, to 93.1 mph in the second and 93.3 mph in the third. The eight balls in play against him had an average exit velocity of 87.8 mph, below the league average 89.6 mph this Spring Training.
“I'm more one of those accuracy guys that can't afford to throw 100 miles per hour down the middle,” Anderson said. “I don't have that one in my back pocket. So I've got to clip corners sometimes. But it all just goes back to our motto, which is dominating the zone.”
For a player-development path is in such infancy, Anderson already looks far more seasoned than his first-year status would suggest. And how much he’s downplayed all of this speaks to his bigger-picture thought process.
“It's one of those outings where sometimes success isn't really the best thing,” Anderson said of Friday’s start. “I think that you don't really learn as much as you could from failure. So you just kind of take these, and obviously, it's great to have success, but you learn the most from failure.”
In the short-term picture, Anderson isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
The tentative plan is to stretch him out to 90 pitches and/or five innings for his first regular-season start -- which mirrors how they’re building workloads for each among their Major League rotation. That’s not necessarily the norm for a pitcher less than one year removed from his Draft day, especially one who was shut down immediately after.
Longer-term, because the Mariners’ rotation is set -- barring a minor oblique issue for Bryce Miller -- Anderson is likely destined for the upper Minors by Opening Day.
The Mariners have preferred to send their pitching prospects to Double-A Arkansas instead of Triple-A Tacoma to avoid volatility, for both weather (which is far less predictable in the Pacific Northwest in April) and competitive environment (the Pacific Coast League is a hitter’s haven). But that won’t be determined for a few weeks.
Again, Anderson’s first two Cactus outings have also been his first in a game since last year’s College World Series. Yet the club’s workload calculus with him also suggests that they want him prepared for the rigors of a six-month season -- essentially, to be ready for a call up to The Show if he’s needed.
The Mariners have not mapped out a hard innings cap for him in 2026, but a jump from 119 last year at LSU to the 150 range would be within reason. Those could be valuable bullets for a club that had four starters deal with notable injuries last season.
“He's got, as we've mentioned before, just that wisdom beyond his years, his competitiveness, his ability to bounce back,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “All those things that you sometimes don't see in young players, I think you see from Kade. He's a pretty determined individual, and that's the part that's really exciting.”
Anderson has been on a six-day routine in Cactus play, which would line him up for at least two more starts and potentially three. He was also among the Mariners’ player pool for Spring Breakout, the prospect showcase slated for March 20 against the Brewers, but his availability could hinge on his specific schedule.