The Rule 5 draft Thursday morning saw the Texas Rangers lose a power right-handed reliever, select a right-handed starter, and then complete a trade for a right-handed starter who will be a reliever.
Confused? Here’s how it happened:
The Detroit Tigers selected Reed Garrett, a hard-throwing Rangers reliever who split his season in 2018 between Double A and Triple A, with the fifth pick, and the Rangers took Chris Ellis from the St. Louis Cardinals two picks later.
Afterward, the Rangers announced that they had traded Ellis to the Kansas City Royals and acquired Jordan Romano from the Chicago White Sox, who had taken him from the Toronto Blue Jays with the third pick.