LOS ANGELES — Tyler Anderson is staying in the Southland, but it won’t be with the Dodgers.
Instead of accepting the Dodgers’ qualifying offer of one year and $19.65 million on Tuesday, the left-handed pitcher agreed to a three-year contract with the Angels worth $39 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
The news broke just before a 1 p.m. PST deadline Tuesday for Anderson to accept his qualifying offer from the Dodgers. The Dodgers will get draft compensation in return.
Star shortstop Trea Turner also declined his qualifying offer from the Dodgers and instead remains a free agent, where he is likely to receive one of the biggest contracts of any available player this winter.
That decision had been expected, and will allow the Dodgers to receive more draft pick compensation if Turner also signs elsewhere.
Anderson’s crosstown move, on the other hand, came as a late surprise.
The 32-year-old journeyman had a breakout 2022 season with the Dodgers, who needed him to take on a far more prominent role than originally expected when he signed a one-year, $8 million deal in the spring.
After starting the season in the bullpen as a long reliever, Anderson was forced into the rotation because of injuries, and he quickly flourished with a reworked pitching arsenal centered around a devastating change-up.
In 30 appearances (28 starts), Anderson went 15-5 with a 2.57 ERA. He earned his first career nod to the All-Star Game. He also had the best performance of any of the Dodgers’ starters during their brief postseason run, pitching five scoreless innings in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
Entering the offseason, it wasn’t certain that Anderson would get a qualifying offer from the team, as the nearly $20 million salary was expected to surpass the annual value he’d get in a longer-term contract on the open market.
However, the club decided before last Thursday’s deadline to extend it.
Anderson took up until Tuesday’s deadline to make his decision. According to one person with knowledge of the situation, he had remained undecided through Monday night and into Tuesday afternoon.
In the end, though, he got the security of a multi-year contract from the Angels, who have now signed pitchers to multi-year contracts in consecutive offseasons after failing to do so the prior seven winters.
