OT- Rule 5 Draft?
I was just browsing the MLB draft and I came across the Rule 5 Draft from last year. I had no idea what that was. From what I figured out, the player you draft has to stay on your MLB roster and you have to pay the player's previous team 50,000. But what makes a player eligible for this draft? Also, I saw Detroit drafted a guy but I haven't seen him at all this year. Sorry, it was just bugging me and I needed to know the particulars.
It is fairly complicated to explain. Apparently you get to protect a certain amount of people in addition to the guys you have on your 40 man roster or something.
Everyone not on your 40 man roster who has been in the minors for a certain number of years is eligible. The rule is so some team doesn't just bury guys with ridiculous depth.
You have to have the guy on your roster all year (there's always plenty of funny business with the DL on Rule 5 guys), or you have to offer him back to the team that had him originally for a price lower than you paid him. Sometimes a team will work out a deal.
Johan Santana is probably the most famous/best player that was a former Rule 5 guy. Josh Hamilton too.
OK, Thank you. I saw on Wikipedia that they have to be active for 90 days, so that stops the DL funny business. But what about the Tigers pick last year? I see his name is Kyle Bloom. Haven't seen him at all this year.
Once you keep him on the roster the first year, you can send him to the minors the next. If you take him off your 40-man though, they'll be eligible for the Rule 5 draft again and you could lose him.
He wouldn't be available rule 5 till December.
No, he was their rule 5 pick last December which means he has to be on their roster all this year. Haven't seen him...
The Rule 5 rules also allow a team to offer a selection back to the team the guy was originally selected from for $25,000. Not sure if you can then just cut him if the original team doesn't want him back either.
You haven't seen Bloom this year because he was terrible in spring training and the Tigers offered him back to the Pirates and the Pirates accepted because they apparently didn't have enough terrible pitchers.
Oh, I see. Didn't know that was the case
Santana wasn't even the top rule 5 pick. He was drafted second then traded for the first pick along with cash or a ptbnl. I forget the details, and it might be the other way around. You summed it up pretty well though, I'm sure there's a million other rules because baseball hates simplicity. The tigers had an interesting prospect chosen last year by AZ, james skelton, a smaller catcher who had hit for decent average and had some speed. Most think he ends up at 2b though.
Isn't Ryan Howard a Rule 5 guy (or almost was)? I just noticed he is in is late 20's and has only been in the league for a few years now. I think he was behind Thome for a long time in Philly. Maybe he was going to become a Rule 5 guy so they had to get rid of Thome?
Pretty sure Howard was on their 40 man -- he'd hit a ton of HRs in the minors. They traded Thome because Howard was ready (I think he was 27 as a rookie), Thome had some injury problems with the Phils, and they thought they could get something for Thome.
They ended up sending Thome and a pile of cash to the Sox for Freddy Garcia, who was bad and hurt with Philly, and Gio Gonzalez. The Phils ended up sending Gonzalez back to the Sox along with Gavin Floyd to get Aaron Rowand.
Yea good call. I just figured something weird was up because he cracked the show so late based on how great he was in the minors.
It basically says you have to have a guy on your roster a certain amount of time after drafting him, or another team can take him.
Baseball's got a lot of weird, byzantine rules. The strangest might be the waiver period in August that allows teams to make trades after the "trading deadline." It's apparently routine for teams to put their entire roster on waivers, even players they have no intention of dealing. (Teams are allowed to reclaim a player they've put on waivers.)