Phillies: Five prospects that could be called up by the end of 2017
By John Town
Pitcher Drew Anderson
When the 40-man rosters were announced last winter, one of the more surprising names on it was pitcher Drew Anderson. The righty didn’t appear on very many prospect lists coming into the year after missing all of 2015 with Tommy John surgery. However, after returning to action last year and performing well in Class-A action, the team felt strongly enough about him to warrant protecting him from the Rule 5 draft.
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Anderson is one of the few players on the 40-man roster that is still in Double-A Reading, but he is pitching well there. After a rough start to the season as he adjusted to the new level of action, Anderson’s ERA has been under three each month. In June he had a 2.15 ERA over five starts and his lone July start he allowed one run in five innings of work.
Overall this season, Anderson has a 3.56 ERA, 1.128 WHIP, and 2.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 83.1 innings. If he continues to pitch the same way he has since May, those numbers should only get better as the season goes on.
Reading is in line for a playoff spot as of now, but when the playoffs end, Anderson could be promoted to the major-league bullpen to help ease the burden on them. They have already done this with several other starters like Ben Lively and Jake Thompson, so they could do the same thing with Anderson.