The last MLB expansion draft took place on November 18th, 1997. Each of the 28 existing teams was able to initially protect 15 players, with the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks mostly alternating picks to fill their new rosters.
The first round consisted of one player being taken from each of the 28 teams, giving the Devil Rays and D’Backs 14 players each. At that point, each of the 28 teams was able to protect an additional three players. After the completion of the second round, each team added another three players to their protected list. In the third round, the Rays and D’Backs would each take an additional seven players, with each new club ending up with 35 in total.
Detailed rules can be found here, but basically each team’s best prospects were not eligible for the draft. Still, about a quarter of the players chosen were minor leaguers. Also, players with no-trade clauses or ten-and-five rights had to be put on protected lists unless they waived those rights. And there would be no reason to protect players eligible for free agency.
We thought it would be fun to determine each team’s current 15-player protected list, as if a new two-team expansion draft is scheduled for November. For simplicity’s sake, only players with MLB experience will be eligible for our mock expansion draft.
So far, we’ve done the Yankees and Red Sox.
Next up, we’ll shape a 15-player protected list for the Blue Jays.
Free agents Matt Shoemaker, Ken Giles, Joe Panik, and Anthony Bass will be excluded. Chase Anderson and Rafael Dolis have club options for 2021. For this exercise, we won’t force the Jays to use protected spots on them, even though they might prefer to retain one or both.
I’ve decided to make any Baseball America top 100 prospect with a 2020 ETA eligible for this mock expansion draft, under the assumption that they would reach the Majors this year. I’ll also automatically put such players on the team’s protected list. That means we’ll add the Blue Jays’ Nate Pearson here, and I’ll make adjustments to include the Yankees’ Deivi Garcia and the Red Sox’ Bobby Dalbec.
Hyun-Jin Ryu automatically takes another of the Blue Jays’ 15 spots due to his no-trade protection. After Pearson and Ryu, that leaves 13 more players to protect. I’ll also put these four players on the list:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Bo Bichette
Cavan Biggio
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
That leaves nine spots for these 24 players:
Anthony Alford
Ryan Borucki
Jonathan Davis
Yennsy Diaz
Brandon Drury
Derek Fisher
Wilmer Font
Sam Gaviglio
Randal Grichuk
Teoscar Hernandez
Danny Jansen
Anthony Kay
Elvis Luciano
Reese McGuire
Billy McKinney
Thomas Pannone
Sean Reid-Foley
Tanner Roark
Jordan Romano
Travis Shaw
Rowdy Tellez
Trent Thornton
Jacob Waguespack
T.J. Zeuch
With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below, please select exactly nine players you think the Blue Jays should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.
oh this one is gonna be some effort
Yeah this is gonna be a toughie.
Wait until the Orioles. That will be the worst of the worst.
For them I got Chris Davis (he has 10-and-5 rights so they would have to protect him although it’s possible that he consents to being left unprotected because he knows that he won’t get taken), Trey Mancini, John Means, Austin Hays, Chance Sisco, Mychal Givens, Anthony Santander, Pedro Severino, Tanner Scott, Richard Bleir, Rio Ruiz, Paul Fry, Hanser Alberto, DJ Stewert and Cedric Mullins. If Davis allows them to leave him unprotected then they can also protect Richie Martin.
It’s actually pretty easy if you know the organization, a lot of these players have little to no value, just signed 1-2 year deals or were claimed via waivers. Roark and Shaw both signed this offseason, so you don’t have to protect them. Alford, Drury, Davis, Romano, Fisher, McKinney, Pannone all have little to no trade value. Font, Gaviglio, Luciano(rule 5) were claimed via waivers. Grichuk is being over paid, would be doing Toronto a favour. For me it comes down to Borucki, Diaz, Hernandez, Jansen, Kay, McGuire, SRF, Tellez, Thornton, waguespack, Zeuch are all young controllable and have some value of these 11 Diaz, SRF, Waguespack , Zeuch and Twllez have fairly minimal value as of now but have either had some big league success or are still decent prospects. To me Borucki, Hernandez, Jansen, Kay, Mcguire, Thornton lock up 6 spots. That leaves 3 for Diaz, SRF, Tellez, Waguespack, and Zeuch. I’d choose Zeuch, Tellez, SRF out of the 3 I wouldn’t be too worried about losing Diaz, Luciano, SRF or Waguespack.
Oops didn’t mean to put losing SRF. Lots of names there.
i a cant see them exposing Luciano after going through the effort of selecting him in the rule 5 from rookie ball just a year ago.
Borucki, Jansen, Luciano, Kay, McGuire, Reid-Foley are 6 who i would say should certainly get kept. rest are wild cards id say. Id keep Waguespack, Zeuch, and maybe Romano from there.
Borucki, Jansen, Kay, McGuire, for sure.
I think you need Thornton and Teoscar on there too. Lots of upside with plenty of control.
Then three of Roark, Grichuk, Tellez and Reid-Foley?
I’d probably expose Grichuk. His contract might get him passed over anyway. Don’t think Tellez will ever make enough contact to be a productive regular… but he might. And his power potential would get him snatched up quick in an expansion draft.
Teoscar and Thornton dont seem like guys that survive this team’s rebuild to be honest. i see them as fairly run-of-the-mill players in today’s game. I also dont see Grichuk being worth the money and Roark is solid but not irreplacable and not as cheap as the other young arms. Tellez was someone i considered but he really did. not show well last year and has a track record of inconsistency.
It’s easy to forget when looking at rowdy how young he really is. Guy is still just 25 and Hard to be consistent when your not given consistent at bats
Thornton was really streaky last year. Looked really dominant at times but completely lost at others. It’s those dominant stretches that makes me want to keep him. Good swing and miss too when he’s on and 4 more years of control.
Jays want to compete in 2021 so I was going to keep Roark… but your probably right. Free agent prices will be coming down next year so he likely wouldn’t get taken… or could be replaced easily. Maybe keep another young out her instead?
No one cares we all know that your posts are gonna be trash!!!
Congrats on not being banned yet. Your posts are worthless.
I actually like Teoscar, if he could take a few more walks he would be fairly valuable offensively. He has a career OPS+ of 108, but that career OBP. of .304 isn’t pretty, he also makes some bazaar fielding errors in the outfield, but his bat could play in the bigs.
Holy crap. Are y’all going to do the entire A.L east in one day? Anyways here are my nine, I am basing my picks on potential and talent more than track record, there will be an exception though.
Borucki
Teoscar
Roark
Reid-Foley
Kay
Tellez
Shaw
Luciano
Jansen
In no particular order did I list these btw. Roark was my exception becasue he is just a durable starter, which the Jays need. Jansen, Kay, Teoscar, and Borucki were no-brainers for me. All the rest are just fairly young pieces the Jays can build around. Almost forgot about Shaw, he has pop, he can move around the diamond, and he is cheap. I see him as a good bounce-back candidate.
Editors note: Forgot about Reese I’d switch him and Tellez.
It’ll be even tougher when they get to the Orioles
I went the with no-brainer keepers: Brandon Drury, Randal Grichuk. Derek Fisher and Travis Shaw.
Bj Ryan that you dog
can’t even start 2020 and who’s getting expansion
teams?
first, milwaukee needs to go back to the al and houston needs to come back to nl.
why do they again? havent we gotten used to both these two yet?
I’m ok with Houston and Milwaukee staying where they are. As for who would get expansion teams, Vegas has long been rumored. Then you look at big cities that don’t have teams nearby, like San Antonio, Austin, Charlotte, and Indianapolis. Those are 5 options that could probably support a team (Seattle, Denver, Boston, Detroit, Baltimore, and Milwaukee are all smaller by population). If there was enough interest, they could make it work. It’d also be easier to realign the leagues into four divisions if they wanted.
Texas does not need a third team. there are areas that are much more geographically underrepresented
But imagine how many fans you could pull with a team in Austin. San Antonio is just 80 miles down the road, and you also have many cities around Austin who are begging for sports other than just U.T. Plus, Texas is such a big state, some of the Northeastern teams are closer together all the teams in Texas (even if Austin had a team). One more thing, California has 5 teams, and Texas has two. Finally, Austin has such a growing economy with how many tech industries are moving here, and Austin is just an overall fun city, the MLB stadium would be electric on a Friday night. I would go to a lot more games if Austin had a team.
Makes more sense to go by metro population than city population. Between Seattle, Denver, Boston, Detroit, Baltimore and Milwaukee, Only Milwaukee metro has a smaller population than Vegas, San Antonio, Austin, Charlotte or Indy.
I really think the Carolinas need a team at this point. North Carolina making the most sense imo.
remember when st. louis was the closest nl team to houston? it still is.
I want one in Monterrey and maybe Montreal, even though I live in San Antonio (I would not object to SA though). When they add 2 more teams I see them putting all 32 teams together and creating 4 new geographically-centric leagues of 8 teams each.
I think there are realistically too many hurdles to clear for a team in Mexico, especially in the near future.
you should replace that comma with a period.
Montreal should get an expansion team – the Expos could’ve been strong if their ownership didn’t tank the last decade (always will wonder what if with 1994) and badmouth their own team & stadium. Portland is interesting. Around 2.5 mil in the metro population, close enough and far enough from Seattle for them to be good rivals.
They need a new stadium in Montreal. It’s amazing that building is still standing
There are plans for one along with funding via the original owners son who is a billionaire so money shouldn’t be an issue.
Yikes! 9?!
I do like the change to include top 100 guys who are probably going to make the majors in 2020, though. It makes more of a difference for some teams than others, but it’s also more realistic.
Firstly, Grichuck would most likely be exposed if coming off another .280 on-base performance, to see if the expansion team takes the salary off their hands.
yeah i dont see why anyone wants to protect Grichuk. even if you don’t consider the contract a wasted one, i still dont see anyone else taking it.
I chose Fisher, Font, Grichuk, yes that’s right, Jansen, McGuire, McKinney, Pannone, Roark, and Thornton.
This poll would be a little easier to navigate if we put McGuire, Jansen, and Kay in guaranteed spots. All recent top 100 prospects that just had their first taste of the majors.
All the Trent Thornton love for a guy who might not even be on the team once they get a bit more pitching depth
yeah dont get the Thornton obsession. he seems like a dime-in-a-dozen sort of SP. an innings eater at such a low cost isnt bad, but doesnt scream needing to protect to me.
We all know what you love to eat!!!
I went with Borucki, Fisher, Hernandez, Jansen, Kay, McKinney, Reid-Foley, Tellez and Thornton
Can’t see them protecting both McKinney and Fisher. I agree with everything else though.
I had them leaving both open and protecting Reid-Foley and Roark instead.
I went with value over fit but if that’s the way you want to do it then sure, switch out McKinney for Gaviglio or Font.
This site is really hurting for content lol.
Well it is like my gym that is closed, they people that run the gym are posting home video workouts, I mean why not keep yourself busy!
These guys have been doing an awesome job making up content in a time when there’s absolutely nothing going on in the world of sports other than the daily grind of no new info every darn day
Harping on a business trying to stay afloat when outside forces have decimated them. You’re special, and not in a good way. This site is doing a fantastic job
Fight the Power and tell the MLB to stick and the Blue Jays protect all their players!
The Rays one is gonna be tough.
Alford got way too much love in this.
No matter what players a team protects, a savvy front office can pick up some nice pieces for expansion if their scouts did their HW.
Look how fast the Rockies made the playoffs and the Marlins and D-Backs won their first championships. A portion of those teams were built with some expansion draft picks that either remained or were flipped for key pieces on their contending teams. I’m sure that the teams that they got those pieces from didn’t know they were giving up what they did.
Doesn’t matter really once you lock up about four or five guys on that list.
I can’t find 9 with elite upside. Most are fodder for release.
I would go with Borucki, Jansen, McGuire, Waguespack, Tellez. and Sean Reid foley for the pen.
Keep the pitching and catching prospects since they’re generally the hardest to acquire and develop.
Of the hitters/fielders that aren’t catchers I’d keep just Teoscar because he has 30-35+ dinger power and isn’t a slug on the bases, which could be valuable as a DH these days.
That adds up to 9 amazingly. Pannone can go as he doesn’t generate enough K’s.
Shaw. The BJs are lucky to have him