The Rule 5 draft begins at 9.a.m ET as this year’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida draw to a close. Those unfamiliar with how the draft works can check out MLBTR’s full primer on the event here, but the short version is that teams with open 40-man roster spots can select players with four to five years of pro experience from other organizations if said player hasn’t been protected on the 40-man roster. Players who signed at 18 years of age or younger but have five years of experience can be selected, as can players signed at 19 or older who have four years of experience. Each selection costs $100K, but it’s not mandatory for teams to make picks. Clubs must carry chosen players on their active rosters (or the major league disabled list) throughout the entire 2016 season. Doing otherwise would expose them to waivers, and they’d then be offered back to their original club. Teams can also work out trades with the original organization to keep the selected player in the organization but send him to the minors.
The Rule 5 order is based on the reverse order of last season’s standings. You can find Baseball America’s preview of the festivities right here. Here are this year’s results:
First Round
1. Tigers – Victor Reyes, OF, Diamondbacks
2. Giants – Julian Fernandez, RHP, Rockies
3. Phillies – Nick Burdi, RHP, Twins (traded to Pirates for international bonus space)
4. White Sox – Carlos Tocci, OF, Phillies (traded to Rangers for cash)
5. Reds – Brad Keller, RHP, Diamondbacks (traded to Royals for cash/PTBNL)
6. Mets – Burch Smith, RHP, Rays (traded to Royals for cash/PTBNL)
7. Padres – no selection
8. Braves – Anyelo Gomez, RHP, Yankees
9. Athletics – no selection
10. Orioles – Nestor Cortes, LHP, Yankees
11. Pirates – Jordan Milbrath, RHP, Indians
12. Blue Jays – no selection
13. Marlins – Elieser Hernandez, RHP, Astros
14. Mariners – Mike Ford, 1B, Yankees
15. Rangers – no selection
16. Rays – no selection
17. Angels – Luke Bard, RHP, Twins
18. Royals – no selection
19. Cardinals – no selection
20. Twins – Tyler Kinley, RHP, Marlins
21. Brewers – no selection
22. Rockies – no selection
23. Yankees – no selection
24. Cubs – no selection
25. Diamondbacks – Albert Suarez, RHP, Giants
26. Red Sox – no selection
27. Nationals – no selection
28. Astros – Anthony Gose, LHP, Rangers
29. Indians – no selection
30. Dodgers – no selection
Second & Third Round
Orioles select Pedro Araujo, RHP, Cubs
Marlins select Brett Graves, RHP, Athletics
Orioles select Jose Mesa, RHP, Yankees
losing Tocci kinda sucks.
Good hit tool, plus defender, no power to speak of. Hes a nice little 4th outfielder for ChiSox
Nope. Belongs to the Rangers now.
No selection for the Padres?? Not going to destroy another kid’s future?
Don’t know how you figure it’s destroying a kids future. Perdomo is doing well. Diaz too. Cordova was stuck in the cards system. That’s the whole purpose of the Rule 5 draft, to give kids stuck in a system and opportunity.
No mention of Luis Torrens?
Cordova was not stuck in the cardinals system; he was highly ranked by them; but didnt figure a team would go grasping after talent at low A with a high ceiling.. perdomo on the other hand was stuck in the cardinal organization at the time but was still highly regarded
Wouldn’t it be the opposite of destroying his future?
They’re going from the minors and not on the 40-man roster to the 25-man MLB roster. Dream come true.
The argument is that the player loses a year of development time, and it’s a real one. Instead of playing everyday against similar competition, Torrens drew 139 plate appearances against pitching he’d never seen before and he hit like a pitcher.
Still though, I think the Rule V is a positive for the players and the game, despite its drawbacks. These guys made north of ten times what they would’ve made in A-Ball, and there’s a really good chance that a guy like Cordoba flames out without ever reaching the bigs if not drafted. Now, he gets health care, a legit salary for at least a year, and an experience he can treasure, even if he was, predictably, one of baseball’s worst players
Destroy it…yeah. Give him $500k salary and a year’s worth of ML experience. Completely destroyed. I bet Perdomo, Cordoba, Torrens and Diaz strongly differ with your opinion.
Damn. DBacks already lost Reyes and Keller.
No selection by Padres ..because no room on 40 man roster ..pads at 40… Need to have space on 40 in order to select a rule 5 kid… Not make room after…but actually be at 39 or lower count on 40man to be able to make a selection…per rules
Yes. And with 7 of their top 30 prospects and one reliever who is not in their top 30 prospects but is better than either of the two guys they protected this year becoming Rule 5 eligible a year from now, it’s probably best that they conserve their 40-man space.
Probably going to be hard for any team to carry any of these selections on their rosters for the entire 2016 season. 😉
Yeah I doubt that any player will make it on the 2016 roster.
If you frequented Shannon Drayer’s Mariners Blog (a great place to talk Mariners baseball–and baseball in general), you’d know that I called for Ford months ago. He’ll serve as insurance for Healy, but could see plenty of AB’s as a pinch hitter, since Seattle still needed a LHH. With Ford they have the capability of throwing a 5th lefty into the lineup. Very good chance he makes the team and sticks around for at least the first half. If Healy struggles early, they could run a platoon, or option Healy.
We’re messing with CardinalsFan79, because he wrongly typed 2016. Next season will be 2018, as all know (even he) 🙂
Right over my head. I thought 24thekid had accidentally written 2016 instead of 2018. Thanks! But CardinalsFan79 appears to have been poking fun at Jeff Todd, who made the initial mistake.
Virtually impossible
It’ll be pretty hard for the entire 2016 season, indeed 😛
wth orioles
Cortes and Mesa are studs
not saying they’re not, i’m a yankee fan
Ah, I see. Just hope Mesa is MLB ready. From what Im reading Cortes is
I think that is the wrong Anthony Gose link that the Astros selected at 28? it says he is a pitcher but link the the one in Detroit an OF. Anyone know anything about this Anthony Gose with the Rangers?
Its the OFer, he converted to a reliever, throws 100
Anthony Gose got converted to a pitcher recently because of his hitting struggles
the link is correct. its the same anthony gose. he was an outfielder who couldn’t hit but could throw 98. so the rangers attempted to convert him and didn’t protect him.
The Rangers didn’t try to convert him, they just signed him to a minor league deal this offseason. Tigers converted him to a pitcher.
whoa, gose is a picher now!? interesting..
also good to see Jose Mesa attempting a comeback !
hmm looks like the same one. He changed to pitching?
Yes, Tigers converted him to pitcher last season in the minors, and actually had some success in a tiny sample. I assume his outfield days are over.
big loss for the rangers
Odd pick for the champs. Hard to stash on that team.
Yankees hit hard, losing Mike Ford and Nestor Cortes from Trenton. Cortes looks like a major leaguer — a crafty bullpen lefty. Liked him when I saw him in person over the summer.
they always seem to get hit hard in the rule 5 drafts
If a player is selected in the rule 5 draft and is injured the whole year does he accumulate service time?
I’m guessing not but:
“To prevent the abuse of the Rule 5 draft, the rule also states that the draftee must be active for at least 90 days. This keeps teams from drafting players, then placing them on the disabled list for the majority of the season. For example, if a Rule 5 draftee was only active for 67 days in his first season with his new club, he must be active for an additional 23 days in his second season to satisfy the Rule 5 requirements.”
I don’t know why I wrote no instead of yes, which didn’t make sense with what I wrote after (facepalm)
He accumulates MLB service time, but there’s still a time commitment where he has to stay on the MLB roster for the team to keep him. Dan Winkler is a good example, since he’s already eligible for arbitration due to MLB service time, but because he was injured for so long, the Braves still have to keep him on their MLB roster through part of May to fulfill the Rule 5 commitment; otherwise, they have to offer him back to Colorado.
Yes. Just like other players that get added to the 60-day DL in the majors, they accrue service time.
Yes. Daniel Winkler has accumulated 3.000 years of service time despite being on the active roster less than a full year total. He was selected in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft and still might not have enough active time to be fully a Brave.
Really like that Nick Burdi pick for the Phillies. He seemed to have turned a corner with his command before getting hurt.
Stash him on the active roster, see what you have midseason. This guy has the potential to be a really nice back-of-the-bullpen arm.
Good luck keeping him on the active roster for the year. I know it’s the Phillies so they don’t need to compete. He wasn’t protected for a reason. He still needs a bit of triple A time. But I guess when you are fielding a triple A team in the bigs it sort of counts.
With any kind of depth at SP, the Phillies compete for a Wild Card this year.
Granted, Burdi doesn’t really factor into that now.
Seeing as he’s now a Pirate, it won’t be an issue.
well that escalated quickly…
….and he’s gone.
Was nice while it lasted. lol
Yankees got fleeced. What’s the deal with Cortes? Lefty with stellar numbers last year.
Mesa looked good too. AA though, not sure he’ll stick around. Bet Santander gets the boot
oh thanks for the info everyone. Interesting pick for Gose then
Why did the Mariners select another short, overweight, left-handed hitting first baseman? They already have Dan Vogelbach who they refused to give an opportunity for, so now Mike Ford will ride the bench all year long?
6 ft 225 is short and overweight. Mike Ford is going to be a solid hitter. I smh because I could not find a single scouting report that was negative enough about him to justify why he didn’t get a shot when Greg Bird was injured and they started to acquire these fringy AAAA guys like Ji-Man Choi and Garrett Cooper. I mean a left hitting power hitter who draws more walks than strike outs seems to be almost the same player as Greg Bird.
AA/AAA at age 25 with 20 hrs and 94 walks vs 72 ko and a .875 OPS seems worthy of a call up to me and certainly should’ve been protected.
Sundown, Ford offers a bat and defense. More athletic than Vogelbach. This makes a ton of sense for the Mariners. They needed insurance for Healy and a LHH for balance. They have that for now.
Dipoto needs people to trade!
If Tampa moves Dickerson, I could see Vogelbach heading there. He would be a fit for KC as well. He would seemingly be expendable now.
Where can we find the results for the AAA portion of the draft?
2018 season not 2016 season
Sucks losing Ford and Cortes. Ford should’ve gotten a chance last year doing the 1B carousel the Yankees had going on. I hope he sticks with the Mariners.
Cortes could be a crafty lefty, I’ve read good things. Best of luck to both of them !
Read an article that said Gose was willing to play both positions. So could be a extra OF when starter needs a rest. And also help in bullpen.
patrick wisdom is still a cardinal
Gose literally a Ranger for 10 days, second time in very recent memory that a team selected a player that could have been signed as a minor league free agent in the weeks prior to the draft.
Is there some strategy that I am missing?
May have been more $ involved in signing to a minor league deal. Essentially the stros picked up Gose for $100k and if he works out they got a guy who throws 100 mph from the left side and can play OF defense in a pinch for almost nothing. If he doesn’t work out then they can return him to Rangers for $50k assuming Rangers want him back, or the stros can send him down to AAA if the Rangers reject taking him back. stros special assistant to the GM, Kevin Goldstein said ‘We’ll admit it. We’re throwing some chips on red 23 here, and we know that. But the payoff’s pretty great. This is the highest upside guy for us (in the Rule 5 Draft).” Also note the stros picked up Chris Nunn, a lefty from the Cubs who throws 96 mph, in the AAA phase of the rule 5 draft. Jeff Luhnow is not changing course because the stros won the world series – he will continue to scour for cheap talent.
The Angels got a two-way player in Ohtani.
The Astros picked one up with Gose.
Now the Mariners, it’s your turn: Christian Bethancourt or Jordan Schafer. Who’s it gonna be?
Any word on Ryan O’hearn? I believe he was available in the Rule 5 draft. I’m hoping the Royals didn’t lose him
Another Joe Table?
Fernandez #2 pick? I’ve watched Fernandez live. Huge arm, can get it up there near triple digits, but is a thrower. Not a pitcher. 5 years in Rockies system, he has not gotten above A ball. If SF can somehow harness his stuff, they could have a dynamic late innings guy. But it’s a reach with the #2 overall pick.
No Tito? Very surprised.
I’m surprised no one plucked from the padres system
I’m more shocked the Mets grabbed Burch Smith
Dude really sucks
Cuz the Padres had no one worth plucking. Next year that will change.
Can pitchers in the NL pinch run ?
That make Gose and his 100 mph fast quite the tool
Of course they can pinch run. Giants used to use Estes in that roll quite often. It’s usually frowned upon. Injury risk. Every season an AL pitcher or two go down on the bases during inner league play. Not used to running lol. A guy like Gose has the wheels and would seem to be a solid option as a pinch runner…in a pinch…
It’s interesting that the White Sox didn’t select and retain anybody in this morning’s Rule 5 Draft. The one pick they made was immediately traded for cash. The good news is that the organization didn’t lose the 3 prospects that they left exposed from their own top-30 list. I thought for certain that LHP Jordan Guerrero would be snatched up by some team.
As a result of no Rule 5 additions, the White Sox still have 4 open spots on their 40-man roster in which to add MLB contracts, be it via free agency or trade.