Mariners Report Cards: Grading the 2021 season for Tyler Anderson

The season is over for the Seattle Mariners… well, the regular season at least. This year was so different than any other. Very few people expected them to compete in 2021, but that’s exactly what they did. As they made their way to the trade deadline, they found themselves as surprise potential buyers. One of the players that they would end up adding is Tyler Anderson.

He is the first player we are going to look at in our first offseason series of handing out grades and report cards for the Mariners. Is he an odd one to start with? Possibly. You would expect someone along the lines of Mitch Haniger, Kyle Seager, or Marco Gonzales for that. Well, I can be an odd guy sometimes, and to be honest, he was the guy I really wanted them to get at the trade deadline. So he’s the pick to lead off the series.

Tyler Anderson could make his way to a decent college with how his grade finished up for 2021

To me, grades need to have an explanation attached to them. Or, a background expectation. If someone like Max Scherzer goes out and posts a 3.50 ERA with a 1.15 WHIP and a K rate of 9.0/9, that’s not a good season for him. However, if an under-the-radar pitcher comes out of nowhere and does that, it’s a spectacular season. Expectations matter.

Tyler Anderson has been incredibly consistent. No, not just in 2021 when he posted 25 straight outings of 5+ innings. I mean throughout his career. I’m throwing out the 20 innings in 2019 (a short season in Colorado should never be held against any pitcher) to see that he had a career 4.34 era before coming to Seattle at the deadline. Check his ERA over the previous three seasons as well.

• 2018 – 4.55
• 2020 – 4.37
• 2021 – 4.35 (Pittsburgh)

The guy just goes out and gives you 5-6 innings and 2-3 runs every outing. Doesn’t come out less, and doesn’t go longer too often. That’s what the Mariners were looking for when they traded for him. Someone who could shore up that final spot in the rotation and eliminate the need for the dreaded bullpen start.

Heading into the final start, Anderson was sitting at a 4.50 ERA with the Mariners. I’m sure some people have a sour taste in their mouth from his final few starts of the season, but there was easily more good than bad with Anderson. In a way, that final game can be thrown out (I don’t like saying it, but it ended up not mattering, and I’m glad they lost because it would’ve hurt so much more if they won and still missed out).

Would you want more out of a starter than you got from Anderson if you were the Mariners? Once again, we have to go back to expectations. The Mariners needed to shore up that bullpen rotation spot. Anderson came in and gave the Mariners seven straight games with 5+ innings. Right when it mattered too, as the playoffs were starting to look like an ever-distant tease.

He actually had a 3.38 through his first ten starts with the team, going 56 innings. The Angels were his downfall, shelling him in his two starts against them where he went just 3.2 innings and gave up 12. Yeah, he had some not great to bad starts, but he had a ton of good-to-great ones.

Outside of that, Anderson was everything we wanted at the deadline for a cheap acquisition. When it comes down to it, we should all be happy with how he played, and he was a big win for the Mariners. Time will tell if it is enough to keep him with the team. For now, it’s time to grade his 2021 season with the Mariners.

Tyler Anderson’s 2021 Mariners Grade: B+ (but barely)