NORTH PORT, Fla. – If he were just preparing for the season like other starting pitchers assured of a roster spot, the Atlanta Braves’ Ian Anderson would’ve quickly forgotten the results from his spring debut Sunday.
But Anderson isn’t just getting ready for the season. He’s trying to win one of two spots at the back of the rotation.
So, walking three batters in 1 2/3 innings Sunday in his start against the Tampa Bay Rays wasn’t ideal. But it also wasn’t something that will be a big mark against him. Not this early, and not in his spring debut after missing the past two MLB seasons while recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery.
“I know the results are what’s going to get me on the team,” Anderson said. “So that definitely takes precedent, which is why I’m not overly thrilled with how it went. But I think I do have the perspective to look back on what I’ve experienced so far, and just kind of take the positives out of it.”
The biggest positive: He’s healthy. His fastball velocity was 91-93 mph, a couple of ticks below his pre-injury velo, but not much different than what Anderson, 26, said he typically featured early in past spring trainings.
Ian Anderson expects his velocity to bump up a few mph by the time the regular season begins. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
“I just think it’s good to get him out there. It’s been a long time,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said after the 4-2 loss. “When he went out there, he said, man, it’s been a while since he faced (major leaguers). I don’t care if it’s a spring training game, I think you’ve just got to get that one by him, and things will settle down a little bit. And he’ll get better from here.”
Teammates who remember seeing Anderson at his best, in person or on TV, including in postseasons in 2020 and 2021, say they believe in him and his progress since surgery in April 2023.
“I think Ian’s doing a great job,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said Sunday morning. “He knows that he doesn’t have to go chase something crazy. Get back healthy. He looks good. And just fit right back in, and go out there every five days and give us a chance to win.”
Anderson’s fastball velocity averaged 94 mph in 2022. It was 94.6 mph in 2021, his first full season, when he posted a 3.58 ERA in 24 starts and finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year balloting.
“I usually kind of tack on 1 or 2 (mph) before we get out of (spring training),” said the right-hander, noting that added velocity would make his change-up more effective.
He bounced a lot of changeups that catcher Chadwick Tromp blocked Sunday when Anderson was charged with one hit, one run and three walks and had one strikeout. The K came on a called third strike to Christopher Morel for the second out of the first inning.
“First inning was good. Bullpen before felt good,” Anderson said. “So, really happy with all that. Definitely started rushing a little bit when I got back out there (in the second inning). But it’s the first time facing big-league hitters in a long time in front of the crowd, so I was kind of anticipating that almost.”
He was encouraged by the slider, which he estimated he threw eight or nine times Sunday. It’s a relatively new pitch for Anderson, who threw it sparingly just before his elbow injury and has added it to his regular repertoire, along with his fastball, changeup and curveball.
With his over-the-top delivery, the movement on the slider is more conventional, rather than the more horizontal movement on the “sweeper” version of a slider.
“It’s something that I kind of wanted to add into the arsenal,” he said. “I have confidence in it and I like throwing it.”
He was throwing 93-94 mph in his early starts last season in the minors, but Anderson said he “petered out” late and saw the velocity dip in his final starts at Triple-A Gwinnett.
Anderson had a 3.26 ERA and .620 opponents’ OPS in his first 11 minor-league starts at three levels last season including six at Gwinnett, while totaling 45 strikeouts with 13 walks in 47 innings of those games.
But in his last four starts for Gwinnett, he had a 3.86 ERA and .817 opponents’ OPS, with 23 strikeouts and 16 walks in 21 innings.
That ended any chance he had of being called up late in the season or making an emergency start in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at San Diego, where the injury-plagued Braves turned to rookie AJ Smith-Shawver rather than Anderson despite the latter’s past postseason success.
Anderson is 4-0 with a 1.25 ERA in eight postseason starts — all in 2020-2021 — with 40 strikeouts and one homer allowed in 35 2/3 innings. That included five scoreless innings in a Game 3 win in the 2021 World Series against the Houston Astros, when he walked three and hit a batter, but allowed no hits.
“Yeah, he’s done a lot,” Olson said. “Obviously you talk about the postseason starts — he’s been in the big moments, mixes it up, knows how to pitch. Good mentality. So, he’s got it all.”
But past performance alone, including his 3.24 ERA with more than one strikeout per inning in 30 starts during his first two MLB seasons, isn’t going to be what sways the decision about the opening rotation.
Snitker has said more than once that the Braves will make decisions regarding the final spots in their bullpen and rotation based on results this spring. But on Sunday, there were extenuating circumstances after the long time away from big-league games.
Anderson and Grant Holmes came to camp as favorites for the last two rotation spots. There are two openings until Spencer Strider returns from elbow surgery rehab as soon as late April, but Bryce Elder is among the other options that could be considered. Elder pitched two scoreless innings with one hit and two strikeouts in the spring opener Saturday against the Minnesota Twins.
Holmes pitched the third and fourth innings Sunday against Tampa Bay and gave up two hits and a run — on a Junior Caminero homer — with one strikeout and no walks.
Bryan De La Cruz impresses
Until veteran catcher Sandy Leon’s eighth-inning homer Sunday off Rays right-hander Trevor Martin, the Braves only extra-base hits in two days had been a double apiece by Jarred Kelenic and Bryan De La Cruz, who are likely to split right-field duties for the first month or more of the regular season until Ronald Acuña Jr. returns from knee surgery rehab.
The left-handed hitting Kelenic led off Saturday with a line-drive double to left-center against the Twins, and De La Cruz, a right-handed hitter, lined a double to center in the second inning Sunday.
De La Cruz, 28, signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Braves in mid-December, after being non-tendered by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who got him from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline. De La Cruz had 18 homers and a .707 OPS in 105 games with Miami last season, but just three homers and a .514 OPS with Pittsburgh after the trade.
During the 2022-2023 seasons, De La Cruz hit .256 with 52 doubles, 32 homers, 121 RBIs and a .719 OPS in just over 900 at-bats (268 games) for the Marlins while splitting time among all three outfield positions, though far more corner-outfield assignments than center.
“I liked him when he was with the Marlins,” Snitker said. “I always thought he was dangerous when he came up. And he was versatile in the outfield. He’s a pretty good player. I thought that was a good acquisition.”
Eli White in infield
Bench candidate Eli White has played only four major-league games in the infield during five seasons with the Texas Rangers and Braves, but you’d have never known it after the slick play he made at second base Sunday.
White lunged to field a sharp grounder off the bat of Kameron Misner in the second inning and made a strong throw to shortstop Orlando Arcia for a force.
White, 30, has played almost exclusively in the outfield as a major leaguer but shifted to the infield this spring because the Braves believe he’s got a better chance of making the team with that versatility. He was an infielder in college at Clemson and in the minors with the Oakland Athletics in his early 20s.
“I just liked the fact that he didn’t panic and completed the play (with the throw to) second,” Snitker said of White, who has played only four regular-season games in the infield in the majors, including three innings in a Sept. 8 game last season with the Braves.
“I’m kind of excited — I’m gonna get him on the other side of the diamond, too,” Snitker said. “I know during our infield drills, turning double plays he looks pretty good.”
Batting leadoff Sunday, the speedy White had a walk and a single in two plate appearances.
(Top photo of Ian Anderson: Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
