On the same day Kyle Zimmer made his MLB Debut, Chris Ellis did as well. Ellis entered a 6-3 game against the White Sox in 9th inning. The first pitch he threw was a curve ball that Leury Garcia hit hard right at Lucas Duda for an out. The next batter was Yoan Moncada. The first fastball Ellis threw was 94 mph and high. Moncada popped up to Mondesi for the second out. Jose Abreu ripped a slider for a single to LF. Yonder Alonso took a first pitch slider right through the middle of the strike zone called a ball. Ellis was unfazed although Maldanado let the umpire know about it. Alonso ended up walking. Eloy Jimenez ripped a ball down the third base line which was backhanded on a dive by Owings who then threw Jimenez out. The umpire ruled Jimenez safe. The play was reviewed before the call was reversed to officially end the inning.

Chris Ellis is a Rule 5 pick the Royals traded for from the Rangers in the off season. The Rule 5 guidelines are pretty simple. Keep him on your roster all year, and you can keep him. If not, you send him back to the other team unless you can work out a deal to keep him. Most Rule 5 picks don’t stick on a team’s roster all year and go back to their original team.

Ellis is a big right-handed pitcher who does a solid job of just about everything. He isn’t flashy, but he is a good prospect. He knows how to use his stuff and to get outs and eat innings. The question really is whether or not Ellis has too little experience to survive this opportunity in the bigs.

I wrote a Film Study on Ellis after watching approximately 60.0 innings of film of him pitching over the last two seasons.

Marcus wrote a piece about not sleeping on Ellis as a prospect in mid-December.