Kade Anderson keeps making the kind of noise that usually comes with a veteran ace, not a first-year pro still carving out his path through the minors.
On Friday night at Dickey-Stephens Park, the Mariners’ top-ranked prospect was again untouchable, striking out seven over five perfect innings to lead Double-A Arkansas past Tulsa, 8-0. The shutout was the Travelers’ 12th of the season, the most in the Minors.
His pitching coach, Cameron Ming, sounded like a man who had watched enough brilliance for one night and still couldn’t quite pin it down.
"He likes to be coached, he likes to be challenged. You know, any great competitor like that is never really satisfied with where their craft is at," Ming said. "But after a performance like that, I'm at a loss on what I'll have to teach on my end.
"Someone's gonna to have to help me figure out what we're gonna have to work on this week."
Anderson’s season numbers explain why the praise keeps piling up. He leads all Minor League pitchers with a 1.27 ERA, a 0.64 WHIP and a .151 average against.
His 115 strikeouts are the most in Double-A, and he’s done it across 77 2/3 innings. In 15 starts with Arkansas, the 22-year-old has gone at least four innings every time, logged 10 scoreless outings and held opponents to one run or fewer 12 times.
Friday was also his second hitless start of at least five innings this year.
What stood out most to Ming was how Anderson has sharpened his changeup, especially against right-handed hitters.
"His execution of his changeup against righties has really come along and has been a neutralizer for him," Ming explained of Anderson's biggest development this season. "He's now able to throw it down and away and locate it well enough that right-handed hitters aren't able to pick it up, especially off of his four-seamer. And against lefties, he's able to move his fastball around to the different quadrants to get passive hitters looking down and away for it."
Against Tulsa, the No. 5 overall prospect never let the Drillers settle in. He needed just nine pitches to get through the first inning and six to finish the second.
He never used more than 10 pitches in any of the first four frames, then finished the fifth by striking out the side. Anderson was done after 56 pitches, 43 of them strikes, and his only three-ball count came against the final hitter he faced before he put him away two pitches later.
"He knew he was facing a very talented and aggressive lineup and he came right at these guys," Ming said. "He wanted to be more aggressive than they were and he flooded the strike zone and executed all of his pitches."
The perfect game and no-hitter survived into the ninth after right-handers Lucas Kelly, Seattle’s No. 16 prospect, and Ty Cummings worked in relief. But with two outs, Sam Mongelli of the Dodgers ripped a ball down the third-base line.
Josh Hood made a diving stop, then threw wide of first, allowing Mongelli to reach second and ending the bid for perfection and a no-hitter. Cummings then struck out Kendall George, the Dodgers’ No. 13 prospect, to close out the shutout.
Arkansas’ offense got a big lift from Jonny Farmelo, Seattle’s No. 6 prospect and MLB’s No. 60 overall prospect, who drove in four runs and hit his first Double-A home run.
Anderson arrived in pro ball with plenty of shine already on him. Before the 2025 Draft, he led LSU to a national title and was named Most Outstanding Player at the Men’s College World Series. He led all Division I pitchers with 180 strikeouts in 119 innings, finished third with 12 wins, and spent time in No. 1 overall conversations before Seattle took him third and signed him for $8.8 million.
At 6-foot-2, the left-hander brings an athletic delivery, a quick arm and a repeatable motion that helps him live in the strike zone. Seattle has a long history of coaxing extra velocity from its pitching prospects, and Anderson looks like the next candidate in that line. He’s already moving fast because of how polished he is, and if this keeps up, he could be pushing toward the front of an already deep Mariners rotation.
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