PEORIA, Ariz. — The atypical anticipation Saturday afternoon’s otherwise random Cactus League game at the Peoria Sports Complex was felt mostly by folks in the Mariners front office, a dozen opposing pro scouts anxious for updates to their reports and, of course, Mariners fans — in person and watching on stream — wanting to see a glimpse of the rotation’s future.
But for Kade Anderson, the reason for all the excitement, well, it was just another game. Selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 draft out of LSU, Anderson had yet to throw in any sort of real game since June 21, 2025 — when he struck out 10 while pitching a shutout in Game 1 of the College World Series finals. Given his workload from his college season and the break from the CWS to the mid-July draft, building him up to have him pitch in August wasn’t logical.
Instead, he rested, lifted, trained and waited while earning an invite to big league spring training.
And after looking impressive to dominant in bullpens and two live batting-practice sessions, his first game of any sort in a Mariners uniform would be a start in the Cactus League with Cal Raleigh as a catcher.
Nerves? Anxiety?
Nope. None.
“I think you’d be surprised, but I mean, it’s just another game for me,” he said politely. “Then, when you have that mindset, it makes it a lot easier on yourself. You don’t have as much for nerves, you know?”
The matter-of-fact nature in the way Anderson said it made it that much more believable. It really was another game for him. To him, this mindset is a standard for success. It was learned. While college baseball is different from MLB, pitching for LSU is different from most college baseball experience.
“I think it just comes with like experience,” he said. “When you see the other starters, they’re just so calm. I think when you’re calm out there it just makes life a lot easier on you.”
Anderson looked nothing but calm against Padres leadoff hitter Xander Bogaerts. He got a swing and miss on a first-pitch fastball at 93 mph. A second-pitch changeup had Bogaerts swinging way early and well above the ball for strike two. Not wanting to mess around, Anderson fired a 95-mph fastball on the outside corner, freezing the former All-Star for a called strike three.
Left-handed-hitting Jackson Merrill swung through a first-pitch fastball at 95 mph but was able to hit a soft bouncer up the middle on a slider well out of the zone. Second baseman Ryan Bliss made the backhanded stop, but couldn’t make the throw to get the speedy Merrill.
Anderson’s calm on the mound broke a little when he issued a walk to Nick Castellanos after getting ahead 1-2. He missed with a 2-2 changeup and a 3-2 fastball and was noticeably disgusted with the execution of both pitches.
“Not a fan of walks,” Anderson said.
But he regrouped quickly, coming back to strike out Miguel Andujar swinging on a 1-2 changeup that disappeared off the outside corner. Anderson closed out the inning with a three-pitch strikeout of Gavin Sheets.
“That first inning was impressive,” manager Dan Wilson said. “It was really good to see him compete like that.”
Anderson didn’t record an out in the second inning. He gave up a shift-beating single on a ground ball through the right side and then left a fastball up on a 3-2 count that Jake Cronenworth turned into a double. Working on a limited pitch count, he was lifted for minor leaguer Houston Roth. The young right-hander struggled, allowing a pair of doubles that scored Anderson’s two runners.
Anderson threw 30 pitches — 19 for strikes. Of the 14 pitches the Padres swung at, they whiffed on eight. He threw first-pitch strikes to the first five batters he faced. He got whiffs on each of his four pitches — fastball, slider, curve and changeup.
Other than the Cronenworth double, the two singles could’ve easily been outs. And he understood it.
“They’ll eventually find gloves,” he said. “It is what it is and that’s baseball. Some of those just don’t roll your way.”
Despite his lack of professional experience, Anderson sounded like a veteran pitcher just trying to get his work in for his first spring outing.
Besides being left-handed, the aggressiveness with which he attacks the strike zone, the quick pace he works at and his quiet confidence evokes a similarity to Cliff Lee.
Raleigh, who caught the entire game and can be notoriously demanding of his starting pitchers, was complimentary more than critical.
“I thought he did great,” Raleigh said. “If we’re getting nit-picky, I think maybe in some behind counts, or some even counts, he got a little too fine with some stuff and tried to be perfect.”
But …
“He’s got four plus pitches,” Raleigh said. “Those are all real pitches that he can throw to both sides of the plate. He’s polished and very impressive. He can locate the ball, he can command it, he can throw off-speed in the zone for strikes. There’s gonna be a learning curve, for sure. Today, he was just a little picky around the zone, but for the most part, I thought he threw the ball great, especially for first time out.”
And because he could, Raleigh worked in a dig at Logan Gilbert in the process.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” Raleigh said. “I think Logan gave up like 10 runs in his first training game. I still give him crap about that.”
To be fair, Gilbert gave up five runs on four hits, including a homer, with a walk and a strikeout in 2/3 of an inning pitched.
Anderson’s outing was slightly better.
“I thought he threw the ball great,” Raleigh said. “It’s tough too. You get in that game environment, everything is different, everything speeds up. He seemed pretty composed and under control, I thought it was a good day for him.”
But to be clear, this wasn’t Anderson’s professional debut.
“This doesn’t technically count as the debut,” he said. “I think some people might say that, but I don’t think it is.”
That professional debut will likely come in April with High-A Everett. He’s slated to start there with the expectation of moving up to Double-A by midseason. And his big league debut? Well, that could come at some point this season. And to him, it will be just another game.