The Tampa Bay Rays Reliever That You've Likely Never Heard of Before

Before we start, let's issue a basic disclaimer - there are plenty of Tampa Bay Rays players that don't get nearly as much national attention as they deserve and it's a shame considering the talent level of many of those players. Despite the fact that there are a handful of different players on the Rays 25-man roster that fall into that category, there is one name in particular that you've likely never heard of before, but it's someone that has been and will continue to be impactful for the Rays as the regular season winds down and the postseason sits a little under two weeks away.

The player being referred to here is none other than 29-year old, right-hander, Nick Anderson. Anderson made the trek to Tampa Bay from the cross state Miami Marlins on the day of the July 31st Trade Deadline and was traded along with right-hander, Trevor Richards, in exchange of right fielder, Jesus Sanchez, and right-hander Ryne Stanek. It was essentially a trade that very much went under-the-radar and didn't receive a lot of national attention because it basically included four players that many baseball fans knew very little about.

Although the trade made very little attention league wide, many fans don't realize the exact type of impact that Nick Anderson has had on the Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff or the type of qualities that he brought to the team after being traded from Miami. Over the past few seasons, the Rays have done a phenomenal job of continually identifying lesser-known pitchers or position players and extracting as much value as possible out of those players. Just refer to the trade for outfielder, Austin Meadows, the acquisition of Tyler Glasnow, and the trade for outfielder, Tommy Pham, as examples of just that.

As such, the Tampa Bay Rays knew they were, and continue to likely be, in a position to make the playoffs and needed to bulk up their pitching staff however they could before the final bell rang on the day of the July 31st Trade Deadline. That's when General Manager, Erik Neander, and Vice President of Baseball Operations, Chaim Bloom, went to work scouring the market for those lesser-known names and trying to find a deal that worked for both parties involved. In this case, they found a deal with the Miami Marlins that met their asking price and was considered a fair price to pay and so far it's definitely paid off huge dividends.

To start the season with the Miami Marlins, Nick Anderson posted a 3.92 ERA over 43.2 innings of work with (69) strikeouts and a (1.28) WHIP. Since being traded over to the Tampa Bay Rays over the span of 20 games or 19 innings of work, Anderson has put up a 1.42 ERA with (37) strikeouts and a (0.58) WHIP. When you put together his stat line with the Miami Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays, Nick Anderson has a cumulative strikeout percentage of (41.7%), an overall walk rate of (7.1%), and an XBA (Expected Batting Average) value of (.191). XBA (Expected Batting Average) is significant because it strives to measure how likely a batted ball is going to become a hit in any type of batting situation at hand. With Nick Anderson having an overall (.191) XBA on the season, it is well below the league average that sits right around (.246) this season.

As such with stats like that, Tampa Bay Rays skipper, Kevin Cash, and the entire Rays coaching staff know that they can count on Nick Anderson to get those critical outs when they matter the most. With the way the Rays operate their pitching staff using "The Opener" and relying heavily on batter-to-pitcher matchups, Anderson is a valuable weapon to have when those critical situations come up during a ball game. Furthermore, the situational splits and opposing batter splits are really fascinating when it comes to analyzing Nick Anderson as well.

Dating back to August 1st, according to data from FanGraphs, Nick Anderson has held opposing team's left-handed hitters to a slash line of: .212/.235/.394 over 9 innings of work with a 2.00 ERA and (19) strikeouts. When it comes to facing righties, Anderson excels even more posting a slash line of: .063/.118/.156 over 10 innings of work with a 0.90 ERA and (18) strikeouts. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Tampa Bay Rays like to structure their pitching staff with pitchers who can get outs in various situations and face both lefties and righties with success. As such, Nick Anderson has a valid case for the type of value that he can provide from that standpoint for the Rays over the remaining games of the regular season as well as come October, assuming the Rays end up clinching one of the American League Wild Card spots when all is said and done.

Diving even deeper now, consider this. One of the best ways to measure the overall value and effectiveness of any reliever is to look at their stats in various situations (runners on, runners in scoring position, no outs, etc.). For starters, when you look at Nick Anderson and how he does in situations with runners on base, the numbers are phenomenal. In those situations, which have accounted for approximately 7.2 innings of the total workload for Anderson since he was traded to Tampa Bay, Anderson has a slash line of: .120/.154/.240 with (3) hits, (2) earned runs, (1) home run, (1) walk, and (9) strikeouts. Furthermore, in those situations, Anderson has held opposing hitters to a (.120) batting average and has an overall (76.9%) left on-base percentage.

The same can be said when you look at how Nick Anderson has done in situations with runners in scoring position as well. In those situations, which have accounted for approximately 5.2 innings of the total workload for Anderson since being traded to Tampa Bay, Anderson has put up a slash line of: .111/.158/.278 with (2) hits, (2) earned runs, (1) home run, (1) walk, and (7) strikeouts. In total, that would account for an overall WHIP of (0.53) and an Opposing Batting Average Against of (.111) in those situations.

Granted, the sample size is extremely small for both scenarios, but it's a glimpse into the type of value that Nick Anderson provides to the Tampa Bay Rays and the type of situations that Tampa Bay will likely put him in should they make the postseason via one of the American League Wild Card spots and advance. In addition, when Tampa Bay traded for Anderson, they weren't just looking at making him a valuable pillar in their bullpen for this year, but rather for the foreseeable future. Anderson, who doesn't hit free agency until 2025, can be that valuable pillar that the Rays need and someone that they can count on to come up big on numerous different occasions moving forward.

Moving along in the discussion, you can go even further when trying to evaluate Nick Anderson and look at his performance based on the type of leverage for the situation at hand. In high leverage situations, Anderson has held the opposing teams batters to a slash line of: .133/.133/.333 with a 2.08 ERA and a (0.46) WHIP. Those situations have accounted for approximately 4 and 1/3 innings of the cumulative innings that Anderson has logged with Tampa Bay. Furthermore, a bulk of the total innings that Anderson has pitched, 11 to be exact, have come in medium leverage situations where Anderson has posted a slash line of: .083/.132/.222 with a 1.64 ERA and (23) strikeouts.

Considering that much of the work that Anderson has done thus far with the Tampa Bay Rays has come in the 7th and 8th innings, it's fair to assume that many times those situations in those innings have been medium leverage. However, even though it's a very small sample size, the results that Nick Anderson posted during high leverage situations shows that he can handle the pressure in those instances as well which all circles back to the original thought of Nick Anderson being extremely valuable for the Rays in various situations and getting those critical outs that matter the most.

So, what type of pitches has Nick Anderson been relying on and exactly what type of velocity does he have on those pitches to make him so successful? The answer to that question is very simple because Anderson only relies on two pitches and has average velocity on both. Since being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, Anderson has relied primarily on his fastball, which he has thrown an average of (72.3%) of the time. Anderson's fastball has had an average velocity of (96.5) miles per hour on it, over that span which is just a hair above where it sat with the Miami Marlins, at (95.9) miles per hour. The other pitch that Anderson relies on is his breaking ball which he has thrown (27.7%) of the time with the Tampa Bay Rays. What's interesting about Anderson's breaking ball is that it is classified as a slider according to FanGraphs, but Anderson himself said that it was a curveball. Regardless, it's been highly effective and it's obvious that it's contributed to his success so far with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Looking into the pitch type more, the splits this season between the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays is also fascinating and could signal the type of pitching plan that the Rays analytics team developed with Nick Anderson shortly after the team acquired him. When it comes to his fastball, Anderson relied on that (56.0%) of the time with the Miami Marlins which nearly isn't as often as he has thrown that pitch with the Tampa Bay Rays (72.3%) of the time, as previously mentioned. When it comes to his slider or curveball, Anderson threw that pitch (44.0%) of the time with the Marlins, but has relied on it only (27.7%) of the time with the Rays, as was pointed out in the previous paragraph. It might mean nothing in the bigger picture or might simply be a different plan of attack considering that Anderson now pitches in the American League as opposed to the National League, but it's a fascinating component of his overall game plan overall nonetheless.

To conclude the discussion, let's take a look at the type of contact that opposing team's hitters are making on Nick Anderson's fastball and curveball, when they are lucky enough to, and the type of contact that has taken place. For more on that, refer to the table below, compiled of data courtesy of FanGraphs.

In the above chart, the O stands for outside, while the Z stands for zone. So essentially, with the Tampa Bay Rays, Nick Anderson has induced more contact both outside and inside of the overall zone than he did during his tenure with the Miami Marlins. Within the inside of the zone, Anderson has gotten (75.2%) of opposing team's batters to swing with the Rays, while with the Marlins that percentage sat at (69.8%). However, overall when you combine the two components together, Nick Anderson has induced more overall swing percentage (59.2%) with the Tampa Bay Rays than he did with the Miami Marlins (51.2%), as showcased in the chat above.

Despite those factors, when Nick Anderson has gotten into trouble with the Tampa Bay Rays this season, it's likely been because of a hit that happened outside of the strike zone. In terms of that category, Anderson posted a (43.7%) value with the Miami Marlins, but that has increased to (54.2%) so far with the Tampa Bay Rays albeit amidst a smaller sample of work. Although, given that the amount of swinging strikes that the opposing team's batters have made within the strike zone since being acquired by the Rays, it is evident that the amount of strike zone contact has dipped. According to the data above, with the Miami Marlins the amount of contact within the zone sat at (78.8%), while with the Tampa Bay Rays that value has dropped more than ten percentage points to (65.2%). As such, overall Nick Anderson is inducing less contact with the Tampa Bay Rays (61.4%) than he did with the Miami Marlins (66.1%), which is a very good thing and indicates that he is having success with striking out those batters.

In the end, the trade for Nick Anderson was certainly one that didn't cause any type of shockwaves throughout baseball or shocking reactions among, even the most casual group of baseball fans, but it has been a very impactful one for the Tampa Bay Rays and will continue to pay huge dividends over the remaining games of the regular season and come October, assuming the Rays end up clinching one of the American League Wild Card spots. As this trade shows, sometimes it's not about trading for the most well-regarded player available, but rather the player that will provide the most value to his new team in their hunt for the postseason. The Tampa Bay Rays have become quite skilled with identifying those types of players over the past few seasons and this is just another situation where they identified value in a relief pitcher that other contending teams did not.