I don’t think they took him as a reliever, I just think that’s where he ends up. He’s got 1 plus pitch, a slightly above average fastball, and …. Hope he develops a changeup into average with time. In his favour, apparently he had good command of the fastball. Slider is a swing and miss chase pitch but generally doesn’t throw it for strikes…yet. Changeup is a work in progress.
Right now, looking at his arsenal he’d profile at the back end of the rotation, 4-5…maybe 3 if all all breaks the right way. I choose to hedge on the downside of this particular gentleman.
They didn’t draft Pearson as a reliever either but every year he gets closer to that role.