Royals pitchers Sam McWilliams and Chris Ellis can thank Brad Keller for completely throwing out of whack the perception of a Rule 5 selection.
The entire premise of the Rule 5 Draft is that a team has to be willing to roll the dice in a way that the player’s previous organization — a team which in theory should have a much better sense of the player — wasn’t.
The drafting team gambles that they can keep a spot on their 25-man roster for the entire year for a player who couldn’t make his current organization’s 40-man roster after four or five years in their farm system.