The Royals announced that they’ve traded right-hander Brooks Pounders to the Angels in exchange for minor league righty Jared Ruxer. The move opens a spot on the Royals’ 40-man roster to make a selection in next week’s Rule 5 Draft, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan points out (on Twitter).
Pounders, 26, made his Major League debut this season but allowed 13 runs on 19 hits and three walks in 12 2/3 innings of work. He did pick up 13 strikeouts and average 92.6 mph on his fastball, and Pounders delivered solid results in his time at the Triple-A level. In 80 1/3 innings with Kansas City’s top affiliate in Omaha (seven starts, 24 relief appearances), Pounders notched a 3.14 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 38.5 percent ground-ball rate. He’ll give the Halos a depth piece that has minor league options remaining to help out in the ’pen in the coming season.
Ruxer, meanwhile, was the Angels’ 12th-round pick in 2014. He split the 2016 season between the Class-A Midwest League and the Class-A Advanced California League, pitching to a combined 3.08 ERA with 8.0 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 45.7 percent ground-ball rate in 111 innings (19 starts, 10 relief appearances). Flanagan tweets that Ruxer had Tommy John surgery in his final season at Louisville in 2014 before being drafted, but Ruxer’s solid season certainly makes it seem as though he’s recovered nicely from the injury.
