Reese Kaplan -- Players to Protect During the MLB Rule V Draft

For the start of this week it would be a good time to review the MLB Rule V Draft   It is a time when a club need to look through the depth of its minor league organization and who needs to remain a part of the long term plans.  It is held this week on Wednesday on the last day of the Winter Meetings.

There is a concern this year that there may not be a Rule V Draft because of the impending lockout expected to happen on December 1st.  If that occurs then players added to the 40-man roster would be ineligible to play minor league ball in the Spring. 

According to the MLB printed rules, "Players first signed at age 18 must be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 process. Players signed at 19 years or older have to be protected within four seasons. 

“Clubs pay $100,000 to select a player in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. If that player doesn't stay on the 25-man roster for the full season, he must be offered back to his former team for $50,000."  

Assuming however that there will still need to be a traditional Rule V Draft then the Mets have a sizable laundry list of players who fit within the MLB regulations stated above.

Let’s have a look at the whole grouping of minor leaguers who might be protected by the Mets by moving them to the 40-man roster:

• Pitchers: Ryan Ammons; Eli Ankeney; Justin Armbruester; Juan Arnaud; Brett Banks; Jose Chirinos; Irving Cota; Candido Cuevas; Felipe De La Cruz; Jorge De Leon; Joel Díaz; Zach Franklin; Saul Garcia; Gary Gill Hill; Cristofer Gomez; Noah Hall; Dakota Hawkins; Wyatt Hudepohl; Bryce Jenkins; Jonathan Jimenez; Gregori Louis; Ernesto Mercedes; Douglas Orellana; Cesar Rivera; Christian Rodriguez; Luis R. Rodriguez; Ben Simon; Austin Troesser; Jack Wenninger; Calvin Ziegler;

• Catchers: Ronald Hernandez; Kevin Parada; Vincent Perozo; Chris Suero; Francisco Toledo;

• Infielders: Ryan Clifford; Randy Guzman; Nick Lorusso; Jacob Reimer; Jefferson Rojas; D'Andre Smith; Marco Vargas;

• Outfielders: Yohairo Cuevas; Estarling Mercado; Yonatan Henriquez

Here’s where David Stearns and his staff theoretically earn their money by making the best possible decisions on which prospects deserve to be elevated to the 40-man roster.

The most obvious one, of course, is infielder Jefferson Rojas who was raking in the minors since arriving to the Mets organization last August.  You need to keep your hands on your in-house number one player prospect.

After that you get the list of reasonably strong candidates would include Chris Suero and Marco Vargas.  Others on the list whose names jump out but whose metrics do not would include Ryan Clifford and Kevin Parada.  You could make a case for catching prospect Ronald Hernandez but since he’s not appeared above A ball it’s entirely reasonable to expose him as he’s not likely to make any club’s Major League roster for the full 2027 season.

On the pitching side of the ledger you have quite a few names but not very many that would likely tempt the other 29 ballclubs.  On the top would be newcomer Gary Gill Hill who struck out quite a few after arriving.  Then you’d have to consider protecting Jack Wenninger who still owns a minor league career ERA of 3.89.  After that there’s no one near enough to the majors and good enough to pique interest by other teams.

Next time around we’ll take a look at another aspect of the 40-man roster.  The deadline for cuts is November 17th and the Mets have quite a few choices that need to be made.  Depending on how many players the Mets want added to it will dictate how many must be removed.