This evening marked the deadline for teams to add Rule 5 draft-eligible players to their 40-man rosters. Accordingly, we’ve seen a large swath of transactions within the last couple days. Here, we’ll make note of the players each team protected from the Rule 5 draft, acquired from outside the organization, and removed from the roster before the deadline. We’ll also keep track of how many 40-man roster spots each team has left vacant.
AL East
- Added to roster: Felix Bautista, Kyle Bradish, Logan Gillaspie, DL Hall, Kevin Smith, Terrin Vavra
- Claimed: Lucius Fox (from Royals)
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Jeter Downs, Josh Winckowski
- Number of open roster spots: 3
- Added to roster: Oswaldo Cabrera, Ron Marinaccio, Everson Pereira, Stephen Ridings, JP Sears
- Designated for assignment: Clint Frazier, Rougned Odor, Tyler Wade
- Traded: Nick Nelson, Donny Sands (to Phillies)
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Jonathan Aranda, Calvin Faucher, Ford Proctor, Tommy Romero
- Traded: Brent Honeywell Jr. (to A’s)
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Hagen Danner, Bowden Francis, Leo Jimenez, Zach Logue
- Claimed: Shaun Anderson (from Padres)
- Number of open roster spots: 2
AL Central
- Added to roster: Jason Bilous, Bennett Sousa
- Number of open roster spots: 5
- Added to roster: Tyler Freeman, Steven Kwan, Bryan Lavastida, Cody Morris, Jhonkensy Noel, Richie Palacios, Konnor Pilkington, Bryan Rocchio, Jose Tena, George Valera
- Acquired: Tobias Myers (from Tampa Bay)
- Designated for assignment: Justin Garza, Daniel Johnson, J.C. Mejia, Scott Moss, Kyle Nelson, Harold Ramirez, Alex Young
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Kody Clemens, Angel De Jesus
- Outrighted: Niko Goodrum, Jacob Robson, Nivaldo Rodriguez
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Jonathan Bowlan, Maikel Garcia, MJ Melendez, Nick Pratto, Collin Snider, Nathan Webb
- Lost on waivers: Lucius Fox (to Orioles)
- Designated for assignment: Kyle Zimmer
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Blayne Enlow, Royce Lewis, Jose Miranda, Cole Sands, Chris Vallimont, Josh Winder
- Designated for assignment: Willians Astudillo, Charlie Barnes
- Outrighted: Kyle Garlick, Devin Smeltzer
- Number of open roster spots: 0
AL West
- Added to roster: Jonathan Bermudez, Shawn Dubin, Jeremy Pena, Joe Perez
- Traded: Garrett Stubbs (to Phillies)
- Lost on waivers: Kent Emanuel (to Phillies)
- Outrighted: Freudis Nova
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Elvis Peguero
- Outrighted: Chad Wallach
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Nick Allen, Jonah Bride, Jordan Diaz, Jorge Juan, Cody Thomas
- Acquired: Brent Honeywell (from Rays)
- Number of open roster spots: 6
- Added to roster: Ray Kerr, Alberto Rodriguez, Julio Rodriguez’
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Ezequiel Duran, Ronny Henriquez, Ricky Vanasco
- Outrighted: Kyle Cody, Edwar Colina
- Number of open roster spots: 3
NL East
- Added to roster: Freddy Tarnok, Drew Waters, Brooks Wilson, William Woods
- Number of open roster spots: 0
Miami Marlins
- Added to roster: None
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Jose Butto, Ronny Mauricio, Adam Oller, Mark Vientos
- Number of open roster spots: 3
- Added to roster: Luis Garcia, James McArthur, Jhailyn Ortiz
- Acquired: Nick Nelson, Donny Sands (from Yankees), Garrett Stubbs (from Astros)
- Claimed: Kent Emanuel (from Astros)
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Donovan Casey, Evan Lee
- Number of open roster spots: 1
NL Central
- Added to roster: Ethan Roberts, Nelson Velazquez
- Number of open roster spots: 3
- Added to roster: Allan Cerda, Alexis Diaz, Daniel Duarte, Hunter Greene, James Marinan
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: None
- Outrighted: Mark Mathias
- Number of open roster spots: 5
- Added to roster: Liover Peguero, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Jack Suwinski, Travis Swaggerty
- Designated for assignment: Michael Perez
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Brendan Donovan, Freddy Pacheco, Jake Walsh
- Number of open roster spots: 4
NL West
- Added to roster: Cooper Hummel, Kristian Robinson, Ryan Weiss
- Outrighted: Miguel Aguilar, Kevin Ginkel, Riley Smith
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Noah Davis, Ryan Rolison, Ezequiel Tovar
- Number of open roster spots: 1
- Added to roster: Jacob Amaya, Michael Grove, Eddys Leonard, James Outman, Jorbit Vivas
- Designated for assignment: Billy McKinney, Zach Reks
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Efrain Contreras, MacKenzie Gore, Eguy Rosario, Steven Wilson
- Lost on waivers: Shaun Anderson (to Blue Jays)
- Outrighted: Reggie Lawson, Jorge Ona
- Number of open roster spots: 0
- Added to roster: Sean Hjelle, Heliot Ramos, Randy Rodriguez
- Designated for assignment: Jay Jackson, Dedniel Nunez (returned to Mets as 2020 Rule 5 draftee)
- Number of open roster spots: 0
Great Roundup.
Thank You.
And thanks for the work during the evening.
I can’t remember if you and I ever minced words or what not but reading you express appreciation to the writers on this site is refreshing. Lots of complaining about this free service. Thank you for restoring a little bit of my faith in humanity. =)
Id like to see a linked list of available R5 players, This might be too hard,
But it would be interesting.
Someone needs to pick up Willians as a reliever, i want to see that floater every few days all year long!
If a team has 0 40 man spots left, does that mean they can’t draft a a Rule V?
I think your right , But if they wanted them bad enough they could remove someone off of there roster.
The Brewers need to pick up Frazier and Kyle Zimmer like now . Yes teams with no open spots can’t draft in rule V draft
Not sure Frazier gets claimed. He’ll be owed $2.1 mill plus a 2nd arb raise. If he clears waivers then he loses arbitration for ’22
@cards, yes, if your 40 man is full, you can’t draft a rule 5 player
Believe you can still drop players off the 40 and put them through waivers. You can add through waivers or sign free agents but not promote anyone to the 40.
Correct,but you can trade for players drafted,and there is also the triple A and double A phase of the rule 5 draft
Great article. Well done. Thx.
Was hoping the White Sox would have added Neslony. He was terrific after coming over last year. Much better than Bilous and he’s a lefty.
Anybody know who the best guys available are for this years Rule 5 draft now that teams made their decisions?
Bubba Thompson is on of the better ones
I’m not sure who is the 1 pick but last year Rays lost 7 players in draft. Considering how talent rich that farm is they will loose more than most after only protecting 4 alas well as giving away some players in trades. Some teams have cash but Rays are the best at managing talent and restocking the farm constantly.
I guarantee someone out there signs or trades for our boy, Red Thunder. And they do it quickly. Smh. Hopefully Frazier can get healthy again, then someone will be getting a good player. I wish him my very best in his future endeavors. He definitely has the talent to succeed at the Major League level.
Of all the guys Cleveland put on the wire, two or three might get claimed. I’m thinking:
Mejia had a rough year in the majors but had a great minor league track record and still has the stuff (95+ mph fastball, plus slider) to be a good reliever. I also believe he should have a 4th option year he qualifies for.
Garza isn’t anything special but has put up good numbers and has multiple options. He’s a decent claim and stash option for a cheap bullpen arm.
Daniel Johnson has speed and defense, and has raw power. He strikes out too much at MLB but his minors numbers always suggested better. As a guy with an option left he might be a stash guy.
Young and Ramirez were waiver claims to begin with who didn’t do enough to stay here. So I think they’ll clear. Scott Moss nobody has seen pitch in 2 years so I doubt it, but he does have an option. Kyle Nelson looked really promising in 2019, got called up, was terrible, and has never looked good since. He was passed by like 4 other lefties in the org so I doubt he gets claimed.
Strong work. I especially like how you organized it by division.
Clemenes Is spelled wrong. Theirs no extra E in his name,
Maybe Frazier gets Traded.
Unlikely someone trades for his salary and health questions. He’ll either be claimed ( which I think is unlikely) and becomes a free agent. Outside chance that NY offers a AAA assignment and offers a similar salary to stay. Whatever they pay him would not count against the CBT. Again, unlikely.
Thanks for the note on Clemens, it’s been fixed.
Yankees are definitely signing FAs in the coming months, but have “0” spots open. I guess they don’t want to get burned like last year (Whitlock, Garcia, Harris). Better to waive a quality prospect in Dec/Jan and have him claimed that way. Than to let them get plucked in Rule V.
Oops, I added Garcia and Harris. (they were 2019). Instead, I meant to add Stephan.
As have 6 openings
Brewers and white sox have 5 each.
I dont recall teams having more than 2 before.
Also, great job covering this flurry of activity. Exactly what this site should be. Not the homerism love fest we usually get. I understand you couldnt help yourselves with the Frazier news. You needed to add the “smashing” and “blistering” when describing a week he had. You should have mentioned the months of “shorts staining” and “booger picking” he did.
Understand that this site gets breaking news and info, which requires access. Access from front office types, as well as player agents. To get that kind of access, those people want to give that info in exchange for favorable coverage.
So when you see a lot of flowery optimism, understand what that serves. It’s how this website gets the scoops. That’s also why they generally don’t traffic in opinion peices, and why their criticisms are usually blunted in some way (instead of saying “x team is cheap” it’ll be “that’s probably out of their price range – perfect example being the article on the Athletics possible fire sale).
And also, they’re not nearly as bad about it as other sites. Woj breaks almost all the NBA news, but his actual columns are terrible for exactly that reason. He’s shameless about it. MLBTR strikes a good balance I think. But you should always keep in mind who is probably their sourcing for anything.
I used neither adjective you’re quoting me on in the Frazier post. To the extent I was complementary of Frazier, I said he mashed in a small sample in 2020 and has long been viewed as a potential high-impact offensive player.
I also called his 2021 numbers “miserly” and noted that he comes with defensive and swing-and-miss concerns. I think it’s fair to suggest somebody’s likely to roll the dice on Frazier based on his pedigree, but I’m not trying to convince readers he’s better than he actually is.
Are you talking about the writers or commenters? As far as the writers go, I honestly rarely see the homerism that you refer to. I interpret most of their opinions as knowledgable and generally backed up with stats and facts.
LOL
Question for everyone. Why do teams not fill up their 40-man roster? If you have 3 slots open, that is 3 more guys you could’ve protected. Even if you signed a FA, couldn’t you just waive one of those guys later?
I think the biggest reason teams don’t do what you’re proposing is that it could ultimately prove counterintuitive. If you leave a player unprotected in the Rule 5, the only way you lose them is if another club is willing to keep them on the active roster (or MLB injured list) for the entirety of next season. That can be hard for teams to manage, particularly as injuries crop up over the course of the year and teams need to call up replacements with experience in certain roles, etc.
If you add the player to the 40-man to take him out of Rule 5 consideration but waive him a few weeks later, then other clubs have the option to pick him up for just a 40-man spot as opposed to needing to devote an active roster spot all year.
I believe they have to spend almost half the season on the active healthy mlb roster.. they can’t just stash a player on the IL
Lots of reasons:
1) they value the roster spot and the ability to select a rule 5 player more than the player/s they leave unprotected.
2) Once a player is selected onto the 40 man roster, in order to be removed they need to be DFA’d, which at that point the claiming team needs to do way less than they would in the rule 5 to keep them.
3) You only really are at risk of losing a player if another claims your player and makes it all the way to the end of the season on the 26 man active roster. No need to protect a light hitting 1B for example, almost no team can afford to roster that player all year.
4) You still need room for free agents, and if you look back at reason #2, if your roster is at 38 and you plan on signing 2 free agents to MLB contracts… had you filled up those 2 spots unnecessarily prior to rule 5… now you need to DFA 2 players for basically no reason.
I think the question teams ask themselves is: Will player X last a whole season on a 25 man roster? If the answer is no, then I believe there is no need to add the player to the 40 man roster. If a player does not last a year on the 25 man roster, he needs to be offered back to his original team, right? So, not protecting every player that could be drafted doesn’t necessarily seem like a bad decision