The Indians announced that they have received righty Josh Martin back from the Padres. The Rule 5 pick had been designated for assignment, with some suggestion that San Diego may attempt to find a way to hold onto him.
Cleveland will slot Martin in at the Triple-A level, where he can continue to develop and serve as pen depth without occupying a 40-man spot. Martin worked to a 3.07 ERA with 10.7 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 over 67 1/3 innings last year at Double-A.
That showing wasn’t enough to get the Indians to commit a roster spot, but proved tantalizing enough for the Pads to give him a shot to stick. But Martin struggled this spring, allowing 13 earned runs in his 11 frames in camp. While he struck out 12 opposing batters in that span, he also surrendered 16 hits and seven walks.
Twice Rule 5 guys have been designated for assignment. Martin and Cave. Not used to that being a thing.
All Rule 5 guys are passed through waivers before being returned to their original teams, just in case another team wants to claim him and keep him on their roster.
Totally correct.
However, it’s new to DFA them first. Normally, they simply get waived. The DFA-then-waive thing is a new-ish trend. It will continue, I’m sure.
Is that really how it works? I thought the surrendering team got first dibs as soon as the acquiring team decided they didn’t want the player.
If he went through waivers, guaranteed we’d see more rule 5 guys being claimed. I can’t really recall that happening. Now if the original team dfa’d him afterwards, then I’d understand the waivers but not in the case where the acquiring team didn’t want him anymore.
They’re right, the player is waived first before being returned to the original team, but with the same stipulation that they must remain on a team’s 25 man roster fire the year. Most of the time, if the team that drafted them was unimpressed enough to waive the player, it’s rare that a different team saw enough to claim the player to keep them on their 25 man