Reliever Mitch Harris released from St. Louis Cardinals organization

The Cardinals have cut ties with reliever Mitch Harris.

Mitch Harris‘s journey with the St. Louis Cardinals, which became a feel-good story for several different reasons over the past couple years, came to an end on Tuesday morning, as the Cardinals released the hard-throwing righty off their Triple-A roster.

Harris originally gained notoriety in 2015 as he reached the majors at age 29 following a nearly five-year stint as an active officer in the U.S. Navy. After dealing with arm issues during spring training last year, Harris became the answer to a trivia question once again, as he became the first player to undergo elbow ligament repair surgery, a new operation developed by Dr. George Paletta–once that was much more frequently talked about when Cardinals reliever Seth Maness received it later in the year–that may eventually become a common alternative to Tommy John surgery. That surgery eventually played a significant role in Harris’s downfall, as he obviously wasn’t progressing quickly enough for the Cardinals to stay patient with his recovery.

The 31-year-old reliever made history two seasons ago by becoming the first graduate of the United States Naval Academy to pitch in the majors in over 100 years. While his numbers were rather average (3.59 ERA and 1.59 WHIP), Harris was unscored upon in 19 of his 26 appearances and provided a major lift to the Cardinals’ relief corps during a season where they endured a ton of bullpen injuries.

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Harris had made two appearances at Triple-A Memphis this season, allowing two earned runs on three hits and no walks over two innings. His outings were sandwiched in between stints on the disabled list, as he began the season on the DL and stayed there for nine days before being activated on April 13, then returned to the DL six days later and remained there until his release on Tuesday. Those two appearances marked his first official game action since September of 2015.

While the Cardinals obviously were concerned enough with Harris’s slow recovery that they chose to sever ties with him, they don’t have a lot of obvious major-league caliber relief options remaining in the minors, which could end up being an issue if the bullpen wears down as much as it usually does over a long summer.

Converted outfielder Rowan Wick is the only true reliever on the 40-man roster who isn’t currently in the majors, though lefty starter Marco Gonzales recently returned to the mound following Tommy John surgery and has a history of success as a reliever at the major-league level. Coming out of the Cardinals’ pen down the stretch in 2014, Gonzales held lefty hitters to a .143 average, then was unscored upon in five of six postseason appearances.