While Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman developed a reputation for hoarding prospects, he’s occasionally elected to part some of the organization’s young talent, particularly within the past year.
Last August, Friedman packaged Jharel Cotton, Grant Holmes and Frankie Montas to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Rich Hill and Josh Reddick. Then in January, Jose De Leon was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for Logan Forsythe.
Well prior to that, in July 2015, Friedman traded Chris Reed to the Miami Marlins in exchange for Grant Dayton. Reed was selected by the Dodgers No. 16 overall in the 2011 Draft. He’d yet to realize his potential, and still hasn’t.
Los Angeles has now parted with another first-round draft pick, releasing Chris Anderson, per Matt Eddy of Baseball America:
#Dodgers release 2013 first-round RHP Chris Anderson, who ran up a 4.81 ERA mostly as a reliever at High-A and Double-A last year.
— Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) April 4, 2017
Anderson was originally selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 35th round of the 2010 Draft. However, he attended Jacksonville University and was then taken by the Dodgers No. 18 overall in 2013.
The right-hander went 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA in 12 starts for Low-A Great Lakes in his debut season. But Anderson struggled with High-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2014, going 7-7 with a 4.62 ERA in 27 games (25 starts).
He nonetheless spent time with Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City in 2015, last season pitched for the Drillers and Quakes. Anderson finished a combined 4-8 with a 4.81 in 36 games (eight starts) in 2016.
The 24-year-old concluded the year pitching for the Glendale Desert Dodgers in the Arizona Fall League. But it did not yield positive results, as Anderson went 1-4 with an 11.88 ERA in six starts.
