Milwaukee Brewers: What to do with Chase Anderson?

With Opening Day fast approaching, the Milwaukee Brewers will have to make some difficult roster decisions, including where to put Chase Anderson.

Coming into Spring Training, the Milwaukee Brewers and manager Craig Counsell had seven legit options to fill their starting rotation with. Now that Opening Day just a few weeks away, the hard part is deciding who will be left out. Of course, as a manager having too much talent is a fantastic problem to have.

However, with plenty of talented options to choose from, deciding what to do and how to utilize Chase Anderson is presenting itself as a difficult dilemma that the Milwaukee Brewers will have to figure out.

Anderson’s struggles

It was during the 2017 season where Anderson emerged as one of the better starting pitchers in the Milwaukee Brewers rotation. He would pitch 141.1 innings with a 2.74 ERA, a 1.090 WHIP and perhaps the key to his success was giving up just 14 home runs. With the Jimmy Nelson injury, Anderson would be the Opening Day starter in 2018, but he would not carry that momentum over into the new season.

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While Anderson’s 3.93 ERA in 2018 may not seem horrific, it is misleading. His FIP, which is a more accurate projection of a pitcher’s effectiveness was at 5.22 and he gave up 30 home runs, which was tied for the most in the NL. Anderson has always been a fly ball pitcher, but in the hitter-friendly confines of Miller Park, a lazy fly ball can turn into a home run quite quickly.

Giving up the home run ball led to a number of big innings from the opponent that ultimately fell on Anderson’s shoulders. The low point in the season for Anderson came when he was replaced as the starter for a bullpen game against St. Louis in late September and would eventually be left off of the playoff roster.

The offseason and Spring Training

Immediately following Milwaukee’s playoff loss in game seven of the NLCS to the L.A. Dodgers, Anderson made it very clear that he wasn’t going to take much time off and was eager to get back to work. Over the offseason, he would work very hard on his pitching mechanics with new Milwaukee Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook, that would improve his command. Anderson had felt he had found something and was excited to start Spring Training.

Unfortunately, up to this point in Spring Training, things haven’t gone as many had hoped for Anderson. In 10.0 innings he has given up four home runs, nine earned runs and holds an 8.10 ERA. Now, stats in Spring Training aren’t everything, but they mean something and given that the home run ball is still an issue is something that Counsell and the Milwaukee Brewers should be concerned about.

What will be Anderson’s role?

Even with his recent struggles, unless there is a surprise trade in the works, the Milwaukee Brewers owe Anderson $6 million in base salary this season, so whether or not you agree, come Opening day he will be on the 25-man roster. The question, however, is in what capacity?

Just last season we saw a struggling Junior Guerra be moved to the bullpen where he found some success in the long reliever role, as well as in the playoffs. However as a long reliever, you do not know how often you will be pitching and that inconsistency is something that may not work for Anderson, who is used to regular starts.

Given Anderson’s salary and the high level that we have seen him pitch at as recently as 2017, I anticipate the Milwaukee Brewers will make him apart of the starting rotation on Opening Day. The upside of him becoming a productive starter in the rotation outweighs the potential of losing a game or two in April. With that said, he will have an incredibly short leash and if the home run ball persists, he won’t be there for long.

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We can only hope that Anderson bounces back in 2019 as this Milwaukee Brewers ball club is an even better team when he is pitching well. But in order to do so, he must do a better job of locating his pitches and keeping the ball low in the zone to make sure that we see a major decrease in the number of home runs he gives up. Otherwise, he won’t be in that starting rotation for long.

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