It's tough to overstate the impact Japan has had on Drew Anderson's life, just in the past few years.

There's his baseball career, of course — the former 21st-round draft pick, born and raised in Nevada, pitched for the Hiroshima Carp, in Japan's Central League, for the past two seasons.

And then there's his personal life — he met his wife in Japan.

"It's been a wild ride," Anderson said. "I've bounced all over the world. I just haven't stuck anywhere."

Anderson, a right-handed pitcher who turns 30 in late March, has pitched 44⅓ innings in his 19-game MLB career across parts of five seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers. He has logged an additional 556⅔ innings in the minor leagues, 155⅔ innings in Japan and 13⅓ innings in Australia.

SIGNING HIM: Drew Anderson signs minor-league contract with Tigers after two seasons in Japan

Anderson spent the past two seasons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He's returning to the United States after the 2023 season, signing a minor-league contract with the Detroit Tigers for 2024, which includes a non-roster invitation to big-league spring training.

He married Misaki, an English teacher he met in Japan, in Las Vegas after getting back to the U.S.

"I proposed before I left," Anderson said, "and we did a little Vegas wedding when she was down here at the beginning of the year. We knew we were going to get married, so we wanted to get the ball rolling on the visa. At the end of the year, we're going to do our ceremony with our families, the whole deal, not just signing papers."

Anderson will try to get back to the big leagues between now and then, though he projects as pitching depth in Triple-A Toledo for now. He worked as a starter and reliever in Japan, with a 2.78 ERA in 46 appearances.

He talked to members of the Tigers' pitching department via a video conference call before signing the minor-league contract. Talks with the Tigers were different than talks with other teams before signing his first two minor-league deals.

That's because manager A.J. Hinch was on the call.

"I've never really hard of anything like that happening for some minor-league signing," Anderson said. "It showed me that they maybe not just wanted me, but they cared about their program and cared about development."

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The Tigers asked Anderson about his experience in Japan and wanted to know how his pitches play. He learned the slide step in Japan to speed up his delivery and help catchers control the running game, and after signing with the Tigers, he is looking forward to experiencing the pitch-clock era.

He throws his fastball up in the strike zone and a curveball off the fastball. He likes to throw changeups in any counts to change speeds and keep hitters from timing up his fastball. He also mixes in a slider and has been toying with a cutter for several years.

The fastball jumps on hitters.

"It really goes all off the fastball," Anderson said.

Anderson thrived in Japan, but he wasn't as sharp on the mound in the United States. He has a 6.50 ERA with 17 walks and 30 strikeouts across 44⅓ innings in his MLB career from 2017-21. Teams had Anderson start in the minor leagues, only to push him to the bullpen in the major leagues. His ERA is 3.46 in his minor-league career, including 3.06 with Round Rock (the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate) in 2021.

He believes he took a step forward in 2021 because of his experience with the Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League. He gained confidence with 28 strikeouts and just three walks while not allowing an earned run over 13⅓ innings.

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The Rangers released him at the end of the 2021 season so he could sign in Japan.

"I've always had a dream of traveling around and playing baseball," Anderson said. "Might as well go to the furthest spot I can. I learned a lot over there. ... I think the age thing means a lot. I didn't think that before I went over there, and now seeing all the respect, I think the veteran role plays a huge part in baseball, whether the guy is a superstar or not."

He enjoyed his two years in Japan.

His wife, Misaki, reached out to him at the beginning of his first season. Anderson spent time with her family and learned enough Japanese words to talk with his new father-in-law. He also made friends with someone whose father is American and mother is Japanese.

"Now I'm back in the States, doing it all over again," Anderson said.

Anderson has been through the ups and downs in his professional career. He went from No. 668 overall in the 2012 draft to missing the entire 2015 season because of Tommy John surgery to making his MLB debut with the Phillies in 2017, and then all the way to Japan for the past two seasons.

He will spend this spring in Lakeland, Florida, but he hopes to find his way to Detroit in the summer.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Drew Anderson's journey to Japan and return to US with Detroit Tigers