The Red Sox have released hard-throwing righty Brian Ellington from his minor league contract, per an announcement from the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket.
The 28-year-old Ellington spent parts of the 2015-17 seasons with the Marlins — during which time Aroldis Chapman was the only pitcher in baseball whose average fastball topped Ellington’s 97.9 mph. In 102 2/3 innings at the big league level, Ellington has a 4.65 ERA with 8.6 K/9, 5.6 BB/9, 0.88 HR/9 and a 34.4 percent ground-ball rate.
Ellington hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since the 2017 campaign. While he inked a minor league pact with the Diamondbacks in 2018, a biceps injury limited him to just 11 1/3 innings. This year, he’s notched a 3.32 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 19 innings between Boston’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, but he’s also issued 20 walks and hit five batters.
At his best, Ellington paired his premium velocity with a swinging-strike rate near 13 percent and an opponents’ chase rate near 33 percent. Control troubles have been a longstanding issue and have clearly hindered him this year, but Ellington does boast a career 13.6 K/9 mark in Triple-A. His next stop figures to be on another minor league pact.
He’ll be in the Orioles system by the end of the week
Thank you Johnny Superscout
They could use him — perhaps he doesn’t give up the long ball as much as the Os do.
angels have improved making pitchers, especially, relief pitchers with heaters viable major leaguers.
Too wild…..
Newest Tampa project
As a Sox fan, I feel like releasing any potential relief arm is a mistake. This kid had the same profile as a younger Andrew Miller. And it’s not like any of our pen or rotation arms are providing premium value right now. Dave Dombrowski is gone in 2 years max, and he will have single handedly won a WS, and gutted us for years to come from a minor league talent standpoint. Can we please get a baseball ops leader who can weigh the future with the current? That’s all I want as a diehard fan, a team I can be enjoy now while knowing there are guys in the wings I should be excited for.
Stop and think, 1 they have won the division three straight years…. so we’re back of the pack in the draft, 2 he has made trades for Sale which has turned out so so. 3 he has been hamstrung with the Ben Cherrington free agent signings that really stunk, Panda, and Han ram. He is facing a tax hit for exceeding 240 mil so he has limits… that tax hit triples from 8 mil to 24 mil by the way. He put his money on Evoldi , which has been a bust, on Pierce which yes has been a bust, Moreland has good bums but unreliable with injuries. Botttom line, these guys are just simple not hungry
His name is (was) Theo Epstein. He helped deliver us 3 WS titles as he actually built a farm system along with making some pretty darn good trades. Why can’t we get guys like that?
Your mom is a saint
Dorothy Mantooth??
I agree… unless he was the one calling/asking to be released I don’t see why they wouldn’t have given him a bit more time to see if he could work some things out. I mean even with his horrendous control this season his bottom line numbers are solid enough — so why not see if he could improve his control a bit and help out down the line? I mean one of their best relievers thus far this season (Workman) is essentially walking almost a batter per outing so it just seems weird for a bullpen think team like the Sox to not be the perfect opportunity for him to work through things and just see — it’s not like he was costing them anything.
Guess is there was a contract triggering issue if it wasn’t his request.
Patriots could use him
Celtics could use him too
Yes, he’s wild. He also throws 100 mph and a number of his box score lines looked pretty good. This appears to be hitting the eject button too soon, esp. next to the inexplicable retention of Tyler Thornburg.
As a Marlins fan, this is what I said a couple of years ago when someone asked about moving Ellington…
Ellington has similar command issues as Barraclough, if not worse, but doesn’t miss as many bats. His fastball is straight and flat also, so he’s hittable, especially b/c his breaking ball isn’t great. He hasn’t really done anything in the big leagues, so he has no value
That he couldn’t beat out 31yo career minor leaguer Josh Smith for a call up to the Sox pen should be a big factor when other teams look at him…