Nathan Adcock; Photo by mwlguide via Flickr

The Kansas City Royals selected Elizabethtown native Nathan Adcock with the fifth pick in the MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft this morning. The Royals must keep Adcock on the 25-man roster all season or return him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the organization they selected him from. Adcock, who was the fifth-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in the 2006 draft out of North Hardin High School, was traded to Pittsburgh in July of 2009 in a deal that sent Jack Wilson to Seattle.

The Royals plan to give Adcock a shot to win a spot in the team’s starting rotation in Spring Training, but he could possibly stick with the team as a reliever if he doesn’t make the rotation. “If he doesn’t win a job as a starter, he could fit into the bullpen because he throws strikes. But he’s not the typical power reliever that you see out of the bullpen,” Royals assistant general manager J. J. Picollo told Dick Kaegel of MLB.com. Adcock was 11-7 with a 3.38 ERA in 27 games for high A Bradenton of the Florida State League in 2010. (Read more)