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Anderson ’18 selected by the New York Yankees in MLB Draft

Right-handed ace chosen by Bronx Bombers in final round

Reid Anderson ’18 will be trading in his brown, red and white jersey for pinstripes next season, as the senior right-handed pitcher was selected by the New York Yankees in the 40th and final round of the MLB draft last Thursday.

“Honestly, at this point right now, it’s still pretty surreal,” Anderson said. “I still don’t think it has really hit me yet, but I couldn’t be happier.”

Anderson was a consistent weekend starter for the Bears in his first three seasons with the team, though his senior campaign was cut short after he had Tommy John surgery March 30.

“It’s kind of like a roller coaster of emotions for me,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen with the whole Tommy John surgery because a lot of teams tend to stray away from kids who get surgery in the year of the draft.”

In 2017, Anderson led Bruno with 41 strikeouts over seven starts on the mound, and helped carry the team to a critical win against Penn when he notched a season-high eight strikeouts over five innings. Throughout his four seasons at Brown, Anderson recorded 130 total strikeouts. 

Head Coach Grant Achilles was impressed with Anderson’s work ethic, and said that “all of the hard work that (Anderson) put in over the last 18 months showed that he was able to be the player that (the Yankees) think can be a professional pitcher.”

Achilles added that Anderson was known for his leadership.

“In the weightroom and on the field, his development skyrocketed,” Achilles said. “He was able to show the guys what hard work was.”

Anderson is now the fourth Brown baseball player in three seasons to be selected in the MLB draft, following Austin French ’16, who went to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016, and Christian Taugner ’17 and Rob Henry ’17, who were both drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017.

“A big part of what our development focuses on is trying to prepare our players, regardless of career, for life after College Hill,” Achilles said. “The fact that we’ve had multiple players drafted over the past several years has really been an encouraging sign of the commitment that our players have shown to development (and to) the level of athletic abilities that our recruiting coaches have brought to our team.”

Anderson garnered attention from scouts when he played for the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Newport Gulls last summer, an opportunity he described as “an awesome experience.”

For Anderson, the next step in the process is to continue to rehab in order to play in the Yankees’ minor league farm system.

“I’ve been rehabbing in the minor league facility in Tampa for the last week,” Anderson said. He will soon return home, where he will continue to rehab his elbow until August, when he will join the Yankees.

“I just need to get healthy, and (the Yankees) will decide what do with me around the spring,” he said.

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