3 deserving Tigers players who were squeezed off the Opening Day roster

Drew Anderson

If you look at his spring training numbers, you'd wonder why the heck Drew Anderson would appear on this list. After all, he had a 7.88 ERA and allowed nine hits in eight innings of work. Well, that was the result of one bad outing — his final outing before getting cut.

On March 21 against the Mets, Anderson allowed five earned runs on three hits and a pair of walks. Those runs accounted for all but two of the runs he allowed the entire spring. Unfortunately for him, he picked a bad day to have a bad day.

Anderson was cut just about 90 minutes after the game. There was still a lot to like about his spring. He had 14 strikeouts in eight innings. The fastball got up to 98 mph, when it was hovering around 93 the last time he pitched in the big leagues with the Texas Rangers. The Tigers may have found something here.

Anderson will probably start the year in Toledo. There's a chance he gets a shot with the team at some point this season. He's not on the 40-man roster, so it'll take a corresponding move, but these things usually sort themselves out.