Headlines

  • Corbin Carroll Diagnosed With Wrist Fracture
  • Reds Designate Jeimer Candelario For Assignment
  • Hoops Rumors Has The Latest On NBA Draft, Free Agency
  • Mets Option Francisco Alvarez
  • Reds To Promote Chase Burns For MLB Debut
  • A.J. Puk Undergoes Elbow Surgery; Gabriel Moreno Diagnosed With Fractured Finger
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

Remove Ads
  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2024-25 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2024-25 Top 50 MLB Free Agents With Predictions
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2025
    • Free Agent Contest Leaderboard
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

September Rule 5 Roundup

By Jeff Todd | September 14, 2015 at 1:37pm CDT

This year’s Rule 5 draft class has shown that the Winter Meeting-capping selection process still has meaning. As Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper explained recently, a remarkably high-quality group of players swapped hands last December, and odds are that few of them will end up returning to their original teams.

For reference, here are the season’s leaderboards for the players who have accrued major league statistics, for both Rule 5 hitters and pitchers. Let’s have a look at where things stand with the season all but over (at least so far as Rule 5 roster considerations are concerned).

Keepers With Immediate Function

Far from clogging roster space, Odubel Herrera (Phillies), Delino DeShields Jr. (Rangers), and Mark Canha have all been heavily-used, productive contributors to their respective teams. Herrera, in particular, has been a revelation, tallying over three wins above replacement at 23 years of age.

On the pitching side of the equation, Mets selection Sean Gilmartin has been nothing short of excellent in his 45 2/3 frames with the club. The lefty has worked to a 2.56 ERA and seeming to be quite a useful asset moving forward.

Twins right-hander J.R. Graham, meanwhile, has exceeded Gilmartin in usage — he’s nearing sixty innings for a contending club — but hasn’t matched the results. Graham owns just a 5.09 ERA, though there are some signs of hope for the future. He has a respectable 7.3 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 to go with a 46.8% groundball rate, and SIERA values his contributions at a solid 3.76.

Needless to say, all of the above players will be retained by their new organizations. While many Rule 5ers who are successfully acquired end up back in the minors following their season of limbo, the odds seem good that all of these players will once again be significant pieces of their teams’ puzzles in 2016.

Little-Used, Future-Looking Assets

Of course, there are other Rule 5 selections who are now all but certain to be kept. But the road traveled by their teams involved much more difficult roster juggling. As with Adrian Nieto (White Sox) and Wei-Chung Wang (Brewers) last year, these players were not significant contributors at the major league level despite taking up active roster spots all season long.

25-year-old infielder Taylor Featherston has had at least some function given his valuable glove, but has slashed just .156/.210/.227 in only 141 plate appearances for the Angels. He makes for a nice analogue to Nieto, who similarly was considered a quality defender up the middle who wasn’t quite ready for MLB pitching, but managed to hold on all season long. Featherston could follow suit and return to the minors next year.

This year’s first overall Rule 5 pick Oscar Hernandez missed the beginning of the season for the Diamondbacks when he hit the DL with a broken hamate bone. He was activated in early July, just in time to spend the required ninety days on the active roster to complete a Rule 5 acquisition. He’s slashed just .107/.219/.143 in a meager 33 plate appearances since that time, so he’s all but certain to be sent down in 2016.

Orioles righty Jason Garcia has only thrown 27 innings, posting a 4.33 ERA with 6.7 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9. Like Wang last year, a mid-season injury eased the active roster burden in his case. It’s not yet clear what will happen with Garcia next year, but it’s likely that he’ll go on optional assignment to develop as a starter.

Also set to be retained upon the conclusion of the 2015 season are lefties Andrew McKirahan (Braves) and David Rollins (Mariners). The two southpaws have had startlingly similar paths: PED suspensions that actually made it easier for their clubs to retain them, followed by fairly ugly earned run averages but reasonably promising peripherals in limited action. Both will cross the 90-day threshold this year, so they can be retained without requiring time on the roster to start 2016.

Still In Limbo

It is possible for a player to remain with a selecting team but still remain in limbo. That’s because of the aforementioned 90-day rule. Players that haven’t spent that much time on the active roster due to DL or suspension stints must first accrue the remainder in the following season before they can be permanently acquired. If and when they do reach that point, such players can be freely optioned to the minors by their new teams.

This year there is one such multi-year player: righty Daniel Winkler, was a Tommy John patient who was only just activated recently by the Braves after missing most of the year. Hhe’s yet to appear in competitive action for the Atlanta organization — in the minors or the majors — and had never seen big league action before the year. He’ll pick up just under a month of time on the active roster late this year, and will need to be on the club’s 25-man for about two months at the start of next season for his rights to be kept.

Already Returned

The ride was over months ago for a trio of hurlers: Jandel Gustave, Logan Verrett, and Andy Oliver. The first two were returned to their former teams, while Oliver hit free agency because he was a two-time Rule 5 pick. Interestingly, Verrett has played a reasonably significant role in the majors with his original team since being returned. He’s thrown 23 1/3 innings of 1.93 ERA ball, with 8.9 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9, for the soon-to-be NL East champs.

Share 10 Retweet 69 Send via email0

Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Angels Minnesota Twins New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Rule 5 Draft Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers Andrew McKirahan Andy Oliver David Rollins Delino DeShields Jr. J.R. Graham Logan Verrett Odubel Herrera Sean Gilmartin

Submit Your Questions For The MLBTR Mailbag
Main
Minor MLB Transactions: 9/14/15
View Comments (9)
Post a Comment

9 Comments

  1. Brixton

    10 years ago

    Odubel Herrera leads all Phillies in WAR and is hitting .300. From the ST reports, we all knew he could hit, but hes been worth a win above replacement defensively — he never played CF until this years spring training. A solid looking outfield of the future with Altherr, Herrera and Williams with Quinn in the mix.

    Reply
    • willi

      10 years ago

      Agree, Phils have some Young Studs coming along ! All can Run , Throw and have some Pop !

      Reply
    • dylanp5030

      10 years ago

      One of the best Rule 5 Rookie seasons of all time.

      Reply
  2. Rally Weimaraner

    10 years ago

    Still surprised Taylor Featherston has held down an MLB roster spot all year.

    Reply
    • MaineSkin

      10 years ago

      I’m thinking if someone did some digging their is a possible reason why a playoff team held a negative bat on the active roster all season

      Reply
      • Brixton

        10 years ago

        1.1 dWAR makes up for the -0.5 oWAR he had.

        Reply
  3. RunDMC

    10 years ago

    Would have been nice to retain former first-rd pick, Sean Gilmartin, for that dilapidated bullpen in ATL, we keep trying to piece together with everyone else’s releases.

    Reply
  4. matthew45

    10 years ago

    Although it is a nice reference stat, WAR is neither concrete or a universal stat

    Reply
    • eggy

      10 years ago

      WAR is the best stat what are u talking about

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Corbin Carroll Diagnosed With Wrist Fracture

    Reds Designate Jeimer Candelario For Assignment

    Hoops Rumors Has The Latest On NBA Draft, Free Agency

    Mets Option Francisco Alvarez

    Reds To Promote Chase Burns For MLB Debut

    A.J. Puk Undergoes Elbow Surgery; Gabriel Moreno Diagnosed With Fractured Finger

    Mariners Designate Rowdy Tellez For Assignment

    Braves To Select Didier Fuentes

    Anthopoulos On Trading Chris Sale: “Will Not Happen”

    Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg In “Advanced” Talks To Sell Team

    Rafael Devers To Start Work At First Base With Giants

    Giants Acquire Rafael Devers

    Shohei Ohtani To Make Dodgers Pitching Debut On Monday

    Roki Sasaki No Longer Throwing; No Timetable For Return

    Nationals To Promote Brady House

    White Sox, Brewers Swap Aaron Civale, Andrew Vaughn

    Justin Martínez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Brewers’ Aaron Civale Requests Trade

    Angels To Promote Christian Moore

    Brewers Promote Jacob Misiorowski

    Recent

    Trade Deadline Outlook: Philadelphia Phillies

    Corbin Carroll Diagnosed With Wrist Fracture

    Twins Have Exercised Rocco Baldelli’s 2026 Option

    Blue Jays Release Erik Swanson

    Tyler Nevin Signs Two-Year Extension With NPB’s Seibu Lions

    Royals Option Kyle Wright

    White Sox Outright Caleb Freeman

    Poll: AL MVP Race Check-In

    Rangers Select Dane Dunning

    Cubs Select Michael Fulmer

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • 2024-25 Top 50 MLB Free Agents With Predictions
    • Nolan Arenado Rumors
    • Dylan Cease Rumors
    • Luis Robert Rumors
    • Marcus Stroman Rumors

     

    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android App Store Google Play

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Remove Ads, Support Our Writers
    • Front Office Originals
    • Front Office Fantasy Baseball
    • MLBTR Podcast
    • 2024-25 Offseason Outlook Series
    • 2025 Arbitration Projections
    • 2024-25 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • RSS/Twitter Feeds By Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    hide arrows scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version