The Royals announced Tuesday that Rule 5 pick Chris Ellis has cleared waivers and returned to the Cardinals organization. The right-hander will head to a minor league affiliate (without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster), though the Cardinals’ announcement of the move did not specify the affiliate to which Ellis is headed.
Ellis, 26, was a roster casualty when the Royals selected the contract of Homer Bailey. Though Kansas City manager Ned Yost stated that the organization tried to get as long a look as possible at Ellis, he was designated for assignment after just one scoreless outing to begin the season. Ellis was hit hard during Spring Training, though, allowing 10 runs on 16 hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts through 10 Cactus League frames.
Originally a third-round pick of the Angels back in 2014, Ellis went to the Braves alongside Sean Newcomb in the Andrelton Simmons blockbuster before making his way to the Cardinals in the trade that sent Jaime Garcia to Atlanta. He was torched in his first two brief exposures to the Triple-A level but had a solid season there in 2018 when he pitched to a 3.76 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 79 innings of work. He’ll likely head back to Triple-A Memphis to continue working toward a spot with the Cards at the MLB level.
Was the Andrelton Simmons trade really a blockbuster? One ML player traded for a lesser ML veteran and two good, not great, minor league prospects. I think that one would just be defined as a trade.
The writers on this site tend to all go a little overboard with their news.
Considering Simmons was one of the best SS in the game, Newcomb was considering one of the top cant miss prospects in all of baseball, and Chris Ellis at the time was considered a strong top 30 prospect (might have been in the top 100 overall)…. yes blockbuster is about right.
Newcomb has turned into a pretty decent pitcher. He still has obvious potential if he can ever stop walking people. Ellis has turned into a probable bust, but he hasn’t been ruled out yet
He was (and is) one of the best DEFENSIVE shortstops in the game. Newcomb was never a “can’t miss” prospect. Among the big 3 prospect lists, the highest he was ever ranked was #21. #21 is not can’t miss. Ellis was never a top 100 prospect on any list. I stand by my statement of just a regular trade.
Wouldn’t say blockbuster. Simmons became a good offensive player with Angels. It’s too bad the guy loses his spot to Homer Bailey. He picked up where he left off in 2018, but 15 Ks in 10 innings. Maybe he can bullpen with ian Kennedy