Nick Anderson just finished a historic month for the Marlins. Here’s how he did it
The strikeout exploits of Nick Anderson throughout the early portion of his rookie season have been well documented. The relief pitcher strikes out more than half the batters he faces. He strikes out more batters per nine innings more than all but one other reliever. All of this is happening after he began spring training considered a long shot to even make the MLB roster.
And now he has another Miami Marlins record to show for it. Earlier in April, Anderson set a franchise record for relievers with multiple strikeouts in seven consecutive outings. After two more strikeouts in the Marlins’ 7-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday in Miami, Anderson finished the month with 24 strikeouts, matching him for the most strikeouts in a single month by a relief pitcher in Marlins history and giving him sole possession of the club record for April strikeouts by a reliever. All this happened in his first full month in the Majors.
“When I saw him the first time, I never thought of him as a long shot,” pitcher Sergio Romo said. “I thought of him as a guy that someone’s going to have to knock him off.”
Miami (8-21) wraps up a quick two-game series against the Indians (17-12) on Wednesday at Marlins Park and Anderson enters the game near the top of the Major League leaderboards for relievers. Anderson’s 27 strikeouts are second most for relief pitchers and his 0.85 WHIP places him among the top 25. Anderson is striking out batters 51 percent of the time, putting him in the top 1 percent of the league.
Anderson works exclusively with a two-pitch mix and both, so far, have been plus pitches. The right-handed pitcher is averaging 95.4 mph on his four-seam fastball, and getting hitters to swing and miss 23.2 percent of the time. His curveball is even better — Anderson is getting hitters to swing and miss at his breaking ball 62.8 percent of the time.
The Marlins signed Romo in February to be a veteran leader of their bullpen and Anderson quickly caught his eye in Jupiter. The first time he watched Anderson throw off a mound, Romo was standing next to bullpen coach Dean Treanor.
“I just kind of looked at him like, Are you kidding me?” Romo recalled. “I don’t know how hard he throws, but I go, That’s firm. It’s got a lot of life. It’s got a lot of ride on the fastball. But then I go, But that’s not even his best pitch.
“It’s hard to believe a guy who can throw at the velocity he throws at and have the quality of fastball he has — especially at the top of the zone, the late life, that little jump at the end that he generates — it’s hard to believe that it’s not his best pitch.”
The fastball and curveball play off each other to perfection. The late life on Anderson’s fastball gives the illusion of it rising up in the zone. Anderson’s curveball features heavy 12-6 action and hammers to the bottom of the zone rather than float. He has a straight over-the-top delivery for both pitches.
“I don’t think I can really complain about much,” Anderson said last month. “Things have been going pretty well.”
Inevitably, the league will start to adjust to Anderson, who has a 2.08 ERA and is on a new streak of consecutive strikeouts in four straight appearances, and hitters already tend to square up Anderson’s pitches when they are able to hit them — his hard-hit percentage is in the bottom 1 percent of the league.
It’s easy to think of success for a 28-year-old rookie as a potential fluke and he’ll have to make an adjustment of his own eventually. Those two pitches, however, are a good enough mix to be sustainable.
“I do see the league making an adjustment to him, but his stuff is going to play regardless because of the quality of stuff,” Romo said, “so it’s no surprise that he’s competitive up here.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 5:59 PM.