Philadelphia Phillies 2012: 5 Notable Prospects Not Protected in Rule 5 Draft
November 30, 2011 by Marilee Gallagher
Filed under Fan News
The weather in December may be getting colder, but the MLB offseason is heating up by the minute. With baseball Winter Meetings underway and free agent rumors circling every baseball website, the MLB Hot Stove has never been hotter.
Plus, with a star-studded class of Jose Reyes, Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols and the biggest signing so far in Jonathon Papelbon, the potential for big signings this offseason has many excited.
In addition to free agent signings, December also features the Rule 5 Draft in which Triple and Double A players from each organization are available to be traded to a new team. It has been described as rooting through a clearance rack in hopes to find a player who will help your club but knowing that you are not likely to discover an all-star difference maker.
That is not to say you won’t get a good player such as Michael Martinez who helped the Phillies in 2011, or rarer yet to find a prospect turned future all-star like Josh Hamilton, Shane Victorino or Dan Uggla, all of whom were selected in the draft.
The Rule 5 Draft does have its stipulations however. Not all of the MLB teams have to select a player and the cost is $50,000 to take a player. If the selected player remains active on his big league club for a minimum of 90 days and stays on the 40- man roster for the entire season, the new team can keep him. If not, he has to be offered back to his old team where they have the option to release of keep the player in addition to returning half of the $50,000 that was offered to them.
While any AA or AAA prospect can be taken, each team has the ability to protect a handful of its players by adding them to their 40-man roster.
As of last week the Phillies made their decisions on who to protect. They added RHP Phillipe Aumont, LHP Jacob Diekman, OF Tyson Gilles and C Sebastian Valle. With the 40-man roster filled and prospects like 2B Freddy Galvis, OF Domonic Brown and pitchers JC Ramirez, Justin De Fratus and Joe Savery already on it, here are some notable names the Phillies chose not to protect from the Rule 5 Draft.