Anderson to forego senior season at Auburn, signs with Royals
Former Cartersville High School and Auburn Tiger, Elliott Anderson, has made the decision to forego his senior college season to sign a professional contract with the Kansas City Royals’ organization. Anderson was selected by the MLB Royals in the 23rd round earlier this month. He was the 679th selection overall.
A statement from Anderson’s Twitter account posted Thursday night: “These last three years at Auburn have been some of (the) most memorable moments of my life! The relationships I have made will last a lifetime! I have not only become a better pitcher since coming here, but also a better man, and I can’t thank Coach Thompson and the rest of the coaching staff enough for helping me along the way! I want to thank my parents for all the support and my teammates for having my back through everything! Thank you for all the work that goes on behind the scenes, whether it was providing one of the best playing surfaces in college baseball or our managers for working to provide us with everything we need! To the Auburn family, I can’t thank you enough! Once a Tiger, always a Tiger! War Eagle!” This season at Auburn the 6-foot, 3-inch left-handed pitcher made 27 relief appearances and three starts to lead the Tigers in appearances. Auburn finished the season 38-28 and reached the College World Series for the fifth time in school history. It was the Tigers first trip to Omaha in 22 years. Auburn won the Atlanta Regional at Georgia Tech and outlasted North Carolina in the Super Regionals to advance to the CWS. There the Tigers were ousted in two straight games, falling to Mississippi State and Louisville. In 2019, Anderson had a 7-2 record with a 4.15 ERA in 65 innings pitched. Opponents hit .254 against the lefty. He struck out 67 and walked 30. Anderson made 68 total appearances for Auburn in three seasons and leaves with a 13-2 record in just over 107 innings. He fanned 108 in his collegiate career.
After the first ten rounds of the MLB draft, all players have an assigned value of $125,000. If any player gets a bonus higher than that, it must come out of the assigned draft pool of the first ten rounds. No subsequent draft pick can offset that bonus by taking an underslot bonus. Organizations often sign college seniors in the first ten rounds for under their assigned slot values. College seniors have little leverage and often are not offered significant signing bonuses. Underslot deals allow teams to sign other players later in the draft for overslot deals. Most new signees with the Royals report to the Arizona Rookie League. The Kansas City affiliate is located in Surprise, Arizona. The AZL Royals are currently managed by former Atlanta Braves’ shortstop Tony Peña, Jr. Anderson joins three other former Cartersville Purple Hurricanes currently playing professional baseball. Sam Howard, Connor Justus, and Anthony Seigler are currently with other minor league franchises.
