Phillies: Chase Anderson could soon secure spot in rotation

As the Philadelphia Phillies face the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon, Chase Anderson will get the start. This might be one of his last appearances in spring and he will have the opportunity to continue what has been a near-perfect Grapefruit League showing. Anderson probably couldn’t have envisioned a better start to his Phillies career.

In seven innings, he has surrendered just three hits and four walks with eight strikeouts and no runs. If Anderson has a strong outing opposite the Tigers, it could secure him a job in the starting rotation. There is no way to predict what the front office will do, but they would be foolish to not reward him for his performance.

Chase Anderson could be close to winning a spot in the Phillies rotation.

Anderson is coming off of an ugly 2020 season but that could be an outlier on his resume. Every year before that, he was at least a serviceable pitcher. He might not reach his 2017 peak performance ever again, but the Phillies just need him to pitch as he did in 2018 and 2019. Anything close to that would be an improvement over the back end of the Phillies rotation in recent seasons.

If Anderson secures his job, that would leave just one spot in the starting rotation for either Matt Moore or Spencer Howard. Moore is coming off of a solid performance against the Toronto Blue Jays in which he allowed five hits and two earned runs in four innings. It certainly wasn’t his best outing, but he has been fun to watch overall. After playing in Japan last year and getting a fresh start, he might be due for a bounce-back season. Howard might be best suited to start in Triple-A or the bullpen.

It looks like the Phillies rotation is starting to come together after they paid Anderson and Moore on one-year contracts. Let’s remember that spring training performance doesn’t always carry into the regular season though. This is just the first step for these guys. The real work will start in April when we will see how well they can perform and if they can pitch deep into ballgames. Let’s hope that’s the case, because the Phillies need them to step up.