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Which 15 Players Should The Twins Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the Royals, Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  The Twins are next.

We’ll start by removing free agents Nelson Cruz, Homer Bailey, Tyler Clippard, Rich Hill, Alex Avila, Marwin Gonzalez, Jake Odorizzi, Ehire Adrianza, and Trevor May from consideration.  We’ll also take out righty Sergio Romo, who has a club option for 2021.

Josh Donaldson will take one spot on the protected list due to his no-trade clause.  I’ll lock down ten additional players:

Max Kepler
Jose Berrios
Jorge Polanco
Mitch Garver
Miguel Sano
Byron Buxton
Michael Pineda
Kenta Maeda
Taylor Rogers
Luis Arraez

That leaves four players to choose from this group:

Jorge Alcala
Willians Astudillo
Jake Cave
Randy Dobnak
Tyler Duffey
Zack Littell
Sean Poppen
Eddie Rosario
Devin Smeltzer
Cody Stashak
Lewis Thorpe
LaMonte Wade Jr
Matt Wisler

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly four players you think the Twins should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

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Which 15 Players Should The Royals Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  The Royals are next.

We’ll start by removing free agents Ian Kennedy, Alex Gordon, and Trevor Rosenthal.

I’ll lock down six players: Jorge Soler, Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Hunter Dozier, Brad Keller, and Salvador Perez.  While there’s a case for leaving Perez unprotected, I don’t think the Royals would do that.  Here’s the initial protected group:

Jorge Soler
Whit Merrifield
Adalberto Mondesi
Hunter Dozier
Brad Keller
Salvador Perez

That leaves nine spots for the following 25 players:

Chance Adams
Scott Barlow
Danny Duffy
Maikel Franco
Jesse Hahn
Tim Hill
Cam Gallagher
Kelvin Gutierrez
Jakob Junis
Jorge Lopez
Nicky Lopez
Richard Lovelady
Ryan McBroom
Kevin McCarthy
Mike Montgomery
Jake Newberry
Ryan O’Hearn
Brett Phillips
Randy Rosario
Glenn Sparkman
Gabe Speier
Bubba Starling
Josh Staumont
Meibrys Viloria
Kyle Zimmer

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly nine players you think the Royals should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

Which 15 Players Should The Tigers Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  The Tigers are next.

We’ll start by removing free agents Jordan Zimmermann, Cameron Maybin, Ivan Nova, Austin Romine, Jonathan Schoop, and C.J. Cron from consideration.

Miguel Cabrera goes on the protected list by virtue of his no-trade clause.  We’ll also add the Tigers’ vaunted trio of pitching prospects, who have a 2020 ETA: Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and Tarik Skubal.  I’ll put Matthew Boyd on the list as well.  So we’ll lock these five down:

Casey Mize
Matt Manning
Tarik Skubal
Matthew Boyd
Miguel Cabrera

With a lot of flexibility on their protected list, the Tigers would be in a good position to make some trades with other clubs with tighter lists.  We’re left with 10 spots for these 23 players:

Tyler Alexander
Jeimer Candelario
Harold Castro
Willi Castro
Jose Cisnero
Travis Demeritte
Buck Farmer
Michael Fulmer
Bryan Garcia
Niko Goodrum
Grayson Greiner
Eric Haase
Joe Jimenez
JaCoby Jones
Dawel Lugo
David McKay
Daniel Norris
Victor Reyes
Jake Rogers
John Schreiber
Gregory Soto
Christin Stewart
Spencer Turnbull

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below, select exactly ten players you think the Tigers should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

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Which 15 Players Should The Indians Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  The Indians are next.

We’ll start by removing Cesar Hernandez, Oliver Perez, and Sandy Leon from consideration since they’ll be free agents after the season.  Carlos Santana has a relatively pricey $17.5MM club option, so we’ll remove him as well.  Roberto Perez has more affordable club options on 2021 and ’22, so we’ll include him in the poll.  I’m only going to lock in these five players:

Francisco Lindor
Mike Clevinger
Shane Bieber
Jose Ramirez
Brad Hand

That means you get most of the control here, as you can choose 10 of the following 26 players:

Greg Allen
Logan Allen
Christian Arroyo
Jake Bauers
Bobby Bradley
Carlos Carrasco
Yu Chang
Adam Cimber
Emmanuel Clase
Aaron Civale
Delino DeShields
James Hoyt
James Karinchak
Jordan Luplow
Phil Maton
Oscar Mercado
Tyler Naquin
Roberto Perez
Zach Plesac
Adam Plutko
Franmil Reyes
Jefry Rodriguez
Domingo Santana
Nick Wittgren
Hunter Wood
Bradley Zimmer

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below, select exactly ten players you think the Indians should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

Which 15 Players Should The White Sox Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  The White Sox are next.

First, we’ll take Edwin Encarnacion, Gio Gonzalez, Steve Cishek, Kelvin Herrera, Leury Garcia, Alex Colome, and James McCann out of consideration, because they’ll be free agents after the season (although some have club options).  We’ll lock in Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, and Jose Abreu on our protected list due to no-trade protection in their contracts.  I’m also going to lock in these eight players:

Yoan Moncada
Lucas Giolito
Eloy Jimenez
Luis Robert
Michael Kopech
Nick Madrigal
Tim Anderson
Dylan Cease

That leaves four spots for the following 14 players:

Carlos Rodon
Nomar Mazara
Evan Marshall
Reynaldo Lopez
Adam Engel
Jace Fry
Aaron Bummer
Carson Fulmer
Jose Ruiz
Jimmy Cordero
Zack Collins
Ian Hamilton
Danny Mendick
Seby Zavala

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below, select exactly four players you think the White Sox should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

Which 15 Players Should The Rays Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  The Rays are next.

In reality, if the Rays were faced with an expansion draft, they’d make a bunch of trades to minimize the damage of losing quality players given their impressive depth.  I decided to lock down only seven players:

Charlie Morton
Blake Snell
Tyler Glasnow
Austin Meadows
Brandon Lowe
Brendan McKay
Wander Franco

That leaves some very tough calls among these 29, of which you can only choose eight:

Willy Adames
Jose Alvarado
Nick Anderson
Randy Arozarena
Anthony Banda
Jalen Beeks
Michael Brosseau
Diego Castillo
Yonny Chirinos
Ji-Man Choi
Yandy Diaz
Oliver Drake
Peter Fairbanks
Brent Honeywell
Kevin Kiermaier
Andrew Kittredge
Nate Lowe
Manuel Margot
Jose Martinez
Brian O’Grady
Michael Perez
Colin Poche
Hunter Renfroe
Trevor Richards
Daniel Robertson
Chaz Roe
Yoshitomo Tsutsugo
Joey Wendle
Ryan Yarbrough

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! Click here to select exactly eight players you think the Rays should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft.  Click here to view the results.

Which 15 Players Should The Orioles Protect In An Expansion Draft?

By | at

In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR.  Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams.  You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.

So far, we’ve done the Yankees, Red Sox, and Blue Jays.  The Orioles are next.

Free agent Jose Iglesias has a club option for 2021, but we won’t force the Orioles to use a protected spot on him.  We will make them include Chris Davis and Alex Cobb, players with full or partial no-trade rights.  After those two, I’ll lock in seven more players:

Trey Mancini
John Means
Austin Hays
Hunter Harvey
Hanser Alberto
Renato Nunez
Anthony Santander

That leaves six spots for these 23 players:

Shawn Armstrong
Richard Bleier
Miguel Castro
Paul Fry
Mychal Givens
David Hess
Travis Lakins
Richie Martin
Cedric Mullins
Evan Phillips
Rio Ruiz
Tanner Scott
Pedro Severino
Chance Sisco
Dwight Smith Jr.
DJ Stewart
Kohl Stewart
Cole Sulser
Dillon Tate
Andrew Velazquez
Hector Velazquez
Asher Wojciechowski
Austin Wynns

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below, please select exactly six players you think the Orioles should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

Which 15 Players Should The Blue Jays Protect In An Expansion Draft?

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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.

Create your own user feedback survey

Which 15 Players Should The Red Sox Protect In An Expansion Draft?

By | at

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.

Next up, we’ll shape a 15-player protected list for the Red Sox.

Free agents Mitch Moreland, Martin Perez, Collin McHugh, Jackie Bradley Jr., Kevin Pillar, and Brandon Workman will be excluded.  The Red Sox have club options on Moreland and Perez, but I don’t think they would burn protected spots on them regardless.

Dustin Pedroia, Chris Sale, J.D. Martinez, and Xander Bogaerts automatically take up four of the 15 spots due to their no-trade rights.  That leaves 11 more players to protect.  I’ve decided to lock in six more spots for the following players:

Rafael Devers
Eduardo Rodriguez
Christian Vazquez
Andrew Benintendi
Alex Verdugo
Michael Chavis

That leaves five spots for these 19 players:

Matt Barnes
Ryan Brasier
Colten Brewer
Austin Brice
Nathan Eovaldi
Matt Hall
Heath Hembree
Darwinzon Hernandez
Tzu-Wei Lin
Chris Mazza
Josh Osich
Jose Peraza
Kevin Plawecki
Mike Shawaryn
Jeffrey Springs
Josh Taylor
Phillips Valdez
Marcus Walden
Ryan Weber

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below, please select exactly five players that you think the Red Sox should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

Which 15 Players Should The Yankees Protect In An Expansion Draft?

By | at

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.

We’ll begin by shaping the Yankees’ 15-player protected list.

Free agents James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, DJ LeMahieu, J.A. Happ, and Brett Gardner will be excluded.  Gardner has a club option the Yankees might like to pick up, but we’ll assume they don’t have to burn a protected spot on him.

Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, and Aroldis Chapman automatically take up three of the 15 spots due to their no-trade rights.  That leaves 12 more players to protect.  The MLBTR staff generally agreed that these eight additional players should be protected:

Aaron Judge
Gary Sanchez
Luis Severino
Gleyber Torres
Miguel Andujar
Gio Urshela
Jordan Montgomery
Chad Green

That leaves four spots for these 16 players:

Zack Britton
Luis Cessa
Thairo Estrada
Mike Ford
Clint Frazier
Ben Heller
Aaron Hicks
Kyle Higashioka
Jonathan Holder
Tommy Kahnle
Mike King
Jonathan Loaisiga
Adam Ottavino
Mike Tauchman
Luke Voit
Tyler Wade

With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership!  In the poll below, please select exactly four players that you think the Yankees should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft.  Click here to view the results.

Create your own user feedback survey

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