SEATTLE -- Kade Anderson’s phone has been buzzing for much of the past week after the left-hander was selected by the Mariners with the No. 3 overall pick in the MLB Draft last Sunday. But one correspondence that stood out came from one of the sport’s most prominent figures this season.
“Cal Raleigh reached out, which right now is probably the coolest guy in the league to get a text from,” Anderson said on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park, where he was formally introduced by the Mariners after officially signing with the club.
Raleigh will soon be Anderson’s batterymate, potentially as early as next season, given how far along Anderson was in his development at LSU and the high workload he accumulated as a sophomore during the school’s run to the Men’s College World Series title this season.
However, the 119-inning workload from this past season is why he won’t throw again this year. After his first-ever visit to Seattle this week, the Louisiana native will voyage to Arizona later this week, where he’ll spend the rest of the season going through a detailed conditioning and nutrition program as the club maps out his throwing program for 2026.
“Just getting him some rest to rebuild and be prepared for his first Spring Training will be the biggest thing for him,” Mariners vice president of amateur scouting Scott Hunter said. “It’s probably going to be the hardest thing for him as well, because it's the first time without baseball and throwing the ball around.”
Though the Mariners have been more restrictive with their high-school Draft picks on the pitching side, their plans with Anderson are similar from those that the club had for Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, first-round picks in 2018 and 2019, respectively, who didn’t report to a Minor League affiliate until the following season; neither did 2024 first-rounder Jurrangelo Cijntje, though his ambidextrous ability put him in his own category.
“Kade is polished,” Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said. “He's already pitched at the highest level, at the College World Series, and he's done it arguably as well as anybody in the country. So the early part of his journey should be less about trying to build a foundation.”
Which leads to the most obvious -- and fascinating -- question: Could Anderson reach The Show in 2026, and if so, when?
“I don't know. That's a lot to ask of a guy,” Dipoto said. “But we're seeing more and more guys fly through [Minor League] systems. We have a pretty gifted group of pitchers, and I think Kade can learn a lot from them. That being said, he was the third pick for a reason. He was the top guy on our Draft board for a reason. We think he is the best combination of talent, of polish and proximity to the big leagues as existed in this Draft.”
Typically, it takes Draft picks -- even the highest selected -- multiple years of Minor League seasoning to reach the Majors. But talent has skyrocketed in just the past few years alone, with the clearest such case being a fellow LSU pitcher and CWS champion: Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, who was selected No. 1 overall in 2023 then was in the Majors 10 months later.
Every player -- and each club’s plans for them, for that matter -- is different, but by all measures, Anderson could be among Seattle’s fastest movers in recent memory.
“I'm kind of dedicated to the plan that the Mariners have for me,” Anderson said. “And when you kind of take it day by day, it kind of makes it easier on you. You never really get too far ahead of yourself.”
Anderson, 21, went 12-1 with a 3.18 ERA, 180 strikeouts, 35 walks and a 1.06 WHIP in 19 starts at LSU in 2025, earning First Team ABCA/Rawlings All-American honors while being named the College World Series Most Outstanding Player while helping the Tigers to their second title in three seasons. He also jumped from 38 1/3 innings the year prior, after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a high-school junior in 2022.
“I think for me right now, obviously the goal is to gain a lot of weight and get stronger and get ready for a season that I've never really experienced before,” Anderson said. “It'll be a lot of games, and I need to be ready to go when that happens.”