Kade Anderson is headed to the majors, and that timing has made the Angels’ 2025 draft decision look worse by the day.
The left-hander will debut tonight for a Seattle Mariners club still hanging around the postseason race. That alone would be notable, but the bigger story is where Anderson was available and who passed on him.
The Angels held the second pick in the draft after the Nationals grabbed high school shortstop Eli Willits at No. 1, giving Los Angeles a shot at the consensus top college arm on the board. Instead, former Angels GM Perry Minasian went with UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner.
Anderson’s case was the kind that usually sells itself. Before the draft, every major pre-draft publication had LSU’s Kade Anderson as the best college pitcher available.
As a junior, he dominated the SEC with 119 innings, 180 strikeouts, a minisucle WHIP of 1.059 and a K/BB ratio of over 5 to 1. The only real concern attached to him was Tommy John surgery as a high school junior, but he had stayed healthy through a full workload in college and looked like a future front-of-the-rotation starter.
Bremner, meanwhile, came into the year viewed as one of the top prospects in the class before his stock slipped after a rough platform season. The source also notes that slide may have been tied to the tremendous off field struggles of losing his mom to cancer.
Now Anderson is the one reaching the big leagues first, and he got there on the back of a monster year at Double-A. Pitching for the Arkansas Travelers, he struck out 135 batters in only 93.1 innings.
More than 40% of the hitters he faced struck out, and he fanned over 10 batters for every walk he allowed. He finished with a 10 win, 1 loss record and and ERA of 1.06.
That’s why the comparison has become so uncomfortable for the Angels. Whenever two division rivals take players back to back near the top of a draft, the matchups never really stop, especially when they play the same position. And when the team picking first passes on the consensus best player, then watches that player reach the majors while its own choice struggles, the spotlight gets harsh fast.
None of that is Bremner’s fault. He still sits in the top half of most Top 100 lists and is expected to be a starter at the MLB level.
But the numbers right now are hard to ignore. Anderson is thriving at Double-A and now on the verge of the majors, while Bremner has a 7.00 ERA at Double-A and owns a 4.71 ERA with 76 strikeouts in 57.1 minor league innings overall.
For a mid round selection, that kind of development might not draw much attention. A surprise second overall pick is a different story. Every step Bremner takes will be measured against Anderson, and that gap is what has turned this into such a loud indictment of the Angels’ draft process.
The Angels moved on from Minasian this summer, just weeks before the draft, and the organization clearly decided it could not afford another swing and miss at the top of the board. The team then turned to John Mozeliak, who led a draft that was much better received.
It’s still early, and Bremner could yet grow into a strong big league arm. But for now, Seattle has the clear edge in this race, and Anderson’s rise has only made the Angels’ choice look more like a symbol of a broken system than a simple draft miss.
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