Brian Anderson was cut by the Marlins. He's been a key part of Brewers' hot start

By Pedro Moura
Published

SAN DIEGO — After more than eight years in the Miami Marlins’ organization, rising from third-round pick to Rookie of the Year candidate and Gold Glove finalist, 2023 was to be third baseman Brian Anderson’s last season under club control.

On the eve of the non-tender deadline, Anderson spoke with Skip Schumaker, the club’s new manager, about his status. Anderson said Schumaker indicated the club would tender him a contract.

"He was pretty adamant that I was going to be on the team," Anderson said.

He is not on the team. The Marlins did not tender him a contract. Anderson became a free agent and, two months later, latched on with the Milwaukee Brewers on a $3.5 million deal that reportedly includes $2 million more in incentives. If he reaches those, he’ll roughly match what he would have earned from Miami in arbitration. 

He may soar past the required thresholds. Three weeks into the 2023 season, Anderson looks like a fixture in the middle of the first-place Brewers’ lineup. He was their Opening Day right fielder. After third baseman Luis Urías sustained a left hamstring injury that day, Anderson took over as the primary third baseman. 

As he rotates between those two positions, he has logged an OPS approaching .900 and the underlying metrics to match. He has nearly doubled his typical walk rate and tapped back into the power he had during his 2018-2020 peak.

Over those three seasons, Anderson played in 89% of the Marlins’ games and slashed .266/.350/.436, an OPS 15% better than the average major-league hitter. According to FanGraphs, he was exactly as valuable over that span as fellow multi-position player Chris Taylor, who soon signed a $60-million contract with the Dodgers.

But as he dealt with shoulder injuries across 2021 and 2022, Anderson slashed just .233/.322/.359 — 10% below average. Because of his competent defense, that was good enough for him to remain solidly above replacement. But the Marlins opted to make him a free agent as they reworked their infield to feature new acquisitions Luis Arráez and Jean Segura.

And now the Brewers are benefiting. In their pitch to him, manager Craig Counsell noted that the club saw Anderson splitting time between third base and right field, exactly as has happened so far. His positional flexibility has allowed his hitting talent to shine. 

Some small changes to his swing were required, too. In spring training, Anderson got to work with hitting coach Connor Dawson on counteracting his longtime nemesis: the high fastball. They first met in February, when Dawson presented to him video evidence that, knowingly or not, he had compensated for his injured left shoulder by diving his body toward oncoming pitches. That effort was not enabling him to attack the entirety of the zone.

"You can’t hit the high fastball if you’re below it," Dawson said. "It’s easier to go top to bottom than bottom to top. That was really the big thing."

As they worked through the issue in the Brewers’ Arizona hitting lab and tested new swings, Anderson repeatedly remarked that he remembered feeling the same sensations in previous years.

"That makes it a lot easier," Dawson said.

Anderson did not so much rework his swing, but rather returned to a previous iteration.

Both player and coach were feeling optimistic about that return. Then, on March 4, Anderson smashed an opposite-field home run off an up-and-away fastball from a Giants left-handed pitcher. It was the sort of pitch that had troubled him across 2021 and 2022.

"OK," Dawson thought. "This could be a thing."

His success continued through Cactus League play and, now, into the regular season. Entering play Tuesday, the Brewers were 12-5. Anderson was hitting .298 with a .373 on-base percentage and .509 slugging mark. He has been the best hitter on one of the sport’s most surprising squads.

"Any time you’re with a new organization, you want to make that big splash," Anderson said. "You want to do good right out of the gate. It’s been awesome, so far, to be part of a team that’s had a good start."

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Dodgers for The Athletic, the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times, and his alma mater, USC, for ESPN Los Angeles. He is the author of "How to Beat a Broken Game." Follow him on Twitter at @pedromoura.

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