The Mariners are set to give baseball’s top pitching prospect his first big league look.
Seattle plans to call up 2025 No. 3 overall pick Kade Anderson to start Saturday against the Chicago Cubs at T-Mobile Park, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Thursday afternoon.
Anderson has wasted no time making noise in pro ball. The left-hander, who helped LSU win the 2025 College World Series title, has been dominant in his first season with Seattle’s Double-A Arkansas affiliate.
In 18 starts for the Travelers, he has gone 10-1 with a 1.06 ERA and a 0.64 WHIP across 93 1/3 innings. He has piled up 135 strikeouts against just 13 walks, while opponents have hit only .147 against him.
The numbers get even louder when you zoom out. Anderson leads the minor leagues in WHIP and strikeout rate at 40.5%, and he’s also first among minor leaguers in Single-A or above in ERA and opponents’ batting average.
His recent run has been especially nasty. The 6-foot-2 lefty didn’t allow a run over his last four starts with Arkansas, covering 20 2/3 scoreless innings. Overall, he has thrown 13 scoreless outings in 18 starts and has given up more than two runs only once.
The 22-year-old enters the majors with the kind of prospect résumé that has him near the top of every list. The Athletic ranks him No. 1 overall regardless of position, ESPN has him third, MLB Pipeline fifth and Baseball America sixth.
Because Anderson is being called up with fewer than 45 days left in the regular season, he will keep his rookie eligibility for 2027 unless he tops 50 innings in the majors this year, which would be highly unlikely.
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