Drew Anderson has pretty much confirmed his 2027 status with Tigers after recent run

Drew Anderson's road back to a big-league mound is one of the more unusual ones in this sport. The Reno, NV native and Galena High grad, a 21st-round Phillies pick back in 2012, bounced around the majors from 2017 to 2021 without ever really sticking, scattered across brief looks with the Phillies, White Sox, and Rangers.

Instead of hanging it up, he went overseas, spending two seasons with the Hiroshima Carp in NPB and then two more with the SSG Landers in the KBO, where he was excellent — a combined 23-10 record with a 2.91 ERA and 403 strikeouts across those two Korean seasons alone.

Playing overseas has a funny way of teaching you the game a little differently than the states do, and I saw that firsthand playing a year in the KBO myself. Whatever Anderson picked up out there, it's showing up now at 32 years old, back with the Tigers on a one-year, $7 million deal that includes a $10 million team option for 2027.

A brand-new weapon

Go check out Anderson's Baseball Savant page and the clearest sign of that development is his changeup. It's become his true out-pitch, thrown roughly 30% of the time to lefties and righties alike, sitting around 90 mph against a fastball in the mid-90s. The separation and the shape give it a true splitter-like effect at the plate, and hitters simply aren't squaring it up, whiffing on it well above league rate.

He also throws an above average curveball that he uses to both handed hitters, which has contributed to his whiff and chase percentage increase. That's a completely different weapon arsenal than the version of Anderson who bounced around organizations five years ago.

Detroit didn't sign him to be a rotation centerpiece. He spent the first several months of this season working out of the bullpen, and it was only after the Tigers traded away Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize at the deadline that necessity pushed him into a starting role. He's answered that call in a big way. Over his last five starts, Anderson has allowed just eight total earned runs, working at least 4 2/3 innings every time out and reaching five innings in four of those five outings, striking out 23 batters across 24 1/3 innings

His last two starts alone have produced 10 strikeouts over 10 1/3 innings without allowing a home run. And it came against a worthy opponent, too — when Skubal made his return to Detroit with the Dodgers on Aug. 28, Anderson matched him pitch for pitch, throwing 4 2/3 scoreless innings of his own that day.

Command is still the one real swing factor. He walked five batters in one recent start before locking back in, and that inconsistency is the difference between him being a solid back-end starter and something more. But at a $10 million option with no buyout attached, the Tigers don't need him to be an ace to make this an easy call.

Starting pitching is always in demand, and with Skubal and Mize both gone, Detroit needs exactly this kind of depth heading into 2027. Anderson has made that decision look simple. Tigers fans should be fired up about the arm he's turned himself into.

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