Guardians' Rule 5 pick Pallette returns to White Sox

CLEVELAND -- The Guardians remain high on Peyton Pallette’s potential to be an impactful big league reliever. They’ll have to watch that play out from afar after they officially parted ways with the 25-year-old on Sunday.

Pallette has been returned to the White Sox, from whom the Guardians selected him in the Rule 5 Draft over the offseason. The news is the culmination of a process unique to Rule 5 picks, and the roster mechanisms in place with those players.

The Guardians were required to keep Pallette on their active roster for the entire season; they could not option him to the Minor Leagues. The right-hander logged a 5.23 ERA with 22 strikeouts and 16 walks in 20 2/3 innings over 16 appearances, and Cleveland faced a tough decision one week ago.

The Guardians needed to add a fresh arm to their bullpen this past Sunday, in the midst of a stretch of 13 games in as many days. They designated Pallette for assignment. He spent the past week on outright waivers -- where any team could have claimed him, but face the same Rule 5 roster restrictions.

After he went unclaimed, the Guardians were required to offer Pallette back to the White Sox. The two sides could have worked out a trade to keep Pallette in the Cleveland organization, had Chicago not wanted to retain him.

Earlier Sunday, Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti spoke about the challenging balance of developing a Rule 5 pick in the Majors, certainly a reliever on a contending team such as Cleveland.

“We have to rely on every guy out there to be able to get outs at important parts of the game,” Antonetti said of the bullpen Sunday morning. "With any Rule 5 guy, that's a challenge to do, because typically, they don't have a lot of experience in the Major Leagues and they're not pitching regularly. So they have to find a way to contribute to a bullpen on a contending team. That could be a really hard thing to ask of a young player.

“In Peyton's case, we were really excited about some of the outings we were able to see and the things he was able to do. But ultimately, not having flexibility with that roster spot and us needing to bring other guys up to cover innings, it just put too much pressure on the bullpen."

Pallette pitched on back-to-back days just twice this season. That perhaps meant more was riding on the other seven relievers workload-wise, including in a marathon May in which the Guardians played 26 games in 27 days before an off-day on Thursday.

Cleveland’s bullpen has held up well. Before it allowed eight runs (four earned) in Saturday’s 9-1 loss to the Red Sox, it ranked sixth in MLB with a 2.58 ERA this month.

The White Sox assigned Pallette to Triple-A Charlotte Sunday morning. We could see him down the road this season.

“I continue to believe that Peyton will be a productive pitcher in the Major Leagues at some point,” Antonetti added Sunday morning, before Pallette rejoined Chicago. “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t see it through as a Rule 5 player this year.”