Ranking the Top Rule 5 Draft Picks in Twins History

[Cody Christie]

Later this week, the Rule 5 Draft will be held at MLB’s Winter Meetings. Who have been the Twins' best selections in the annual rite?

Image courtesy of Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Many fans think of Johan Santana as the team’s best Rule 5 Draft pick. Technically, however, the Twins didn’t draft him. Instead, he was picked by the Marlins and traded to Minnesota as part of a prearranged deal. Santana is arguably the best pitcher in Twins history, but he won’t be featured on the list below, since the Twins didn’t draft him themselves. (Besides, that makes for better suspense, doesn't it?)

Minnesota’s current front office has avoided taking players in the Rule 5 Draft for various reasons. Sometimes, the right players aren't available at their draft spot, but more broadly, they value roster flexibility, including moving players up and down from Triple A. Rule 5 draftees must stay on a team’s active roster for the entire season, and contending teams have a tough time hiding those players on the roster. 

The Twins haven’t selected a player in the Rule 5 Draft since 2017, when the club took Tyler Kinley with the 13th overall pick from the Marlins organization. He made four appearances with the Twins and posted a 24.30 ERA before being offered back to Miami. It seems very unlikely the Twins will select anyone this year, either.

Let’s look back at the team’s previous successes in the Rule 5 Draft. Which player has provided the most value to the Twins?

5. Gary Wayne, RP
Twins WAR: 2.5
Minnesota selected Wayne from the Montreal Expos with the 10th pick in the 1988 Rule 5 Draft. He pitched parts of four seasons with the Twins from 1989-1992. In 170 innings, he posted a 3.44 ERA with a 1.31 WHIP and a 5.6 K/9. As a left-handed pitcher, his .688 OPS against southpaws was 64 points lower than versus righties. Minnesota traded Wayne to the Rockies along with Rob Wassenaar, for Brett Merriman. Wayne pitched his final two seasons in the bullpens of the Rockies and the Dodgers.

4. Mark Salas, C
Twins WAR: 2.7
In 1984, the Twins selected Salas from the Cardinals organization with the seventh pick. He immediately became the team’s starting catcher, and hit .300/.332/.458 (.791) with 20 doubles, five triples, and nine home runs in 120 games. Salas finished in eighth for the AL Rookie of the Year voting, but accumulated almost as much rWAR as the winner, Ozzie Guillen. (If ever you come into possession of a time machine, please go back and show voters the WARs, to ameliorate this injustice.) During the 1987 season, Salas was traded to the Yankees for Joe Niekro. Overall, he had an eight-year career in the big leagues, playing for six organizations. 

3. Ryan Pressly, RP
Twins WAR: 3.6
Pressly has gone on to be one of the game’s best relievers, but few could have predicted that back in 2012. Minnesota selected him with the fourth pick, plucking him from the Red Sox organization. He pitched six seasons (317 innings) for the Twins and posted a 3.75 ERA with a 1.30 WHIP and 8.0 K/9. In July 2018, the Twins traded Pressly to the Astros for Gilberto Celestino and Jorge Alcala. Houston worked with Pressly on his curveball to make it a dominant strikeout pitch, and he’s been integral to the Astros during their decade of dominance. 

2. Doug Corbett, RP
Twins WAR: 8.3
Corbett was the last pick in the 1979 Rule 5 Draft (10th overall), but he ended up having a solid career as a reliever for the Twins. In his rookie season, he made 73 appearances and posted a 1.98 ERA with a 1.06 WHIP. Corbett finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting but accumulated more WAR than both players ahead of him combined. (Again: time travelers, fix it. And don't tell me you don't have time to.) He represented the Twins at the 1981 All-Star Game, as he led the league in games and games finished that season. In May 1982, he was traded with Rob Wilfong to the Angels for Tom Brunansky and Mike Walters. He’d pitch parts of five more seasons, but never replicated his production with the Twins. 

1. Shane Mack, OF
Twins WAR: 19.6
The Twins selected Mack with the fifth pick in the 1989 Rule 5 Draft from the Padres. He played five years with Minnesota and was a key role player on the 1991 World Series team. In 633 games, he hit .309/.375/.479 (854) while averaging 24 doubles and 13 home runs. Some argue that he is among the most underrated Twins ever. Following the 1994 campaign, he signed in Japan and posted an .819 OPS across two seasons. Mack returned to the big leagues in 1997 and played a part-time role with Boston, Oakland, and Kansas City for two seasons. 

Do you agree with the rankings above? Would you include Santana in the rankings? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

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[Cory Engelhardt]

Scott Diamond had an ok 3 year run 2011-2013, at least in comparison to the rest of the pitching staff at that time. Otherwise I don't know that I can argue any of the choices.

And yes, man, was Shane Mack good. :)

[Doctor Gast]

Johan Santana was a Rule 5 draftee & after the dust settled he was a Twin. That's all that mattered to me. Because the Twins were creative only adds to their credit & merit of claiming him.

[Brandon]

So would Jared Camp be ranked since his value to the Twins was that he was used to acquire Johan Santana and 50k making that rule 5 pick free and the return on that trade was so high.  

[Riverbrian]

Santana isn't a Twin without the Rule 5 draft. 

Not drafting him directly is a technicality. 

#57 should be retired. 

Johan Santana should be number 1 on this list by such a margin that #2, 3, 4 and 5 are not even close.   

Shane Mack should be 6, Corbett 7, Pressly 8, Salas 9 and Wayne #10 because Santana gets the first spot and the next 4 places for proper perspective. 

[DocBauer]

Mack was very,  very good and yes, he remains one of the most underrated Twins from the past. Or at least, for some reason, he just gets forgotten when conversations about former great Twins takes place.

For some reason, I always forget he was a rule 5. I always think he was a FA/waiver signing. 

Man, I had forgotten about Wayne!

IIRC, when the Twins selected Camp, a swap if him for Santana was already pre-arranged, though I forget the nature of the deal. By that very fact, I think I'd include Santana on the list.

[Brandon]

3 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Santana isn't a Twin without the Rule 5 draft. 

Not drafting him directly is a technicality. 

#57 should be retired. 

Johan Santana should be number 1 on this list by such a margin that #2, 3, 4 and 5 are not even close.   

Shane Mack should be 6, Corbett 7, Pressly 8, Salas 9 and Wayne #10 because Santana gets the first spot and the next 4 places for proper perspective. 

You could probably put Mack in number 3.  He was pivotal to a World Series championship.  And if not for the baseball strike he might have remained a Twin a little longer and got more WAR. And then leave 4 and 5 blank.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Obviously if you include Santana, he's at the top as one of the best pitchers the Twins ever had.  The semantics are a little wonky, but he's basically a Rule 5 guy.  Don't sell Shane Mack and Doug Corbett short though.  They were both pretty terrific players, even though they didn't play for the Twins long enough.  The rest - Pressley didn't get really good until after he left, Salas and Wayne were just OK - probably aren't major pickups.  Let's take a look and see if we can get lucky again!

 

[Trov]

Santana should be on the list.  I do not care that we did not "draft" him but traded for him, he was still under the same rules of the rule 5 draft. The trade was decided before the draft was done, had we not been contacted by Marlins to basically pay for our draft cost so they could get Camp, we most likely would have taken Santana, according to reports on the draft.  The story goes we were contacted by Marlins to set the trade up in advance, that we would draft Camp for them, they would draft Santana for us, and they would send us cash as part of a trade.  Unlike in NFL you cannot just trade picks like that.  

I get it, technically we did not draft him, but come we basically did, he was a rule 5 pick that we still had under the same rules and we traded our rule 5 pick for him.  So please lets stop hitting the technical rule and just call him our rule 5 pick like he basically was. I would get it if the trade was not set up before hand but it was. I mean in NBA the same thing happens, you cannot trade picks on day of NBA draft, but teams agree in principle, and the team that holds the pick draft the player, and the player wears the hat of the team that drafted him, despite everyone knowing he is getting traded the second the NBA can sign off on the deal.  

[Otaknam]

Johann Santana and Shane Mack were the first to come to mind, followed by Presley.  I didn’t remember that the other three were rule five pickups. Hopefully Jorge Alcala is healthy this year and finally brings some value to the Presley trade. 

[Brandon]

14 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Mack was very,  very good and yes, he remains one of the most underrated Twins from the past. Or at least, for some reason, he just gets forgotten when conversations about former great Twins takes place.

For some reason, I always forget he was a rule 5. I always think he was a FA/waiver signing. 

Man, I had forgotten about Wayne!

IIRC, when the Twins selected Camp, a swap if him for Santana was already pre-arranged, though I forget the nature of the deal. By that very fact, I think I'd include Santana on the list.

The Twins picked 1rst and Miami 2nd so the Twins picked the player Miami wanted and Miami picked the player the Twins wanted and they made the trade.  Miami kicked in the 50k cost of the rule 5 pick as well making Johan Santana totally free. 

[IndianaTwin]

41 minutes ago, Brandon said:

The Twins picked 1rst and Miami 2nd so the Twins picked the player Miami wanted and Miami picked the player the Twins wanted and they made the trade.  Miami kicked in the 50k cost of the rule 5 pick as well making Johan Santana totally free. 

It would be interesting to know the backstory on the negotiations.

I'm trying to put myself in each team's situation. For the Twins, what's the gain in negotiations. They got the benefit of Miami kicking in the money, but if wanted Santana, they could have just taken him. Did they go to Miami and say, "If you've got someone you want, you can pay us $50k so we don't take him. You can't just give us a check for $50k, so let's work out the mechanics by doing it as a draft and swap." Did Miami come to them ahead of time and say, "We've got a guy we really want. Can we work out a trade so you don't make a deal with some other team instead?"

Is that what happened, or do we know more to the story and why it went down that way? 

[IndianaTwin]

Related, we could ask who was the best Rule 5 draft pick ever. It would seem to be either Christy Mathewson, drafted by Cincinnati from the Norfolk Phenoms in 1900, or Roberto Clemente, drafted by the Pirates from Brooklyn in 1954.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_5_draft

[Brandon]

6 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

It would be interesting to know the backstory on the negotiations.

I'm trying to put myself in each team's situation. For the Twins, what's the gain in negotiations. They got the benefit of Miami kicking in the money, but if wanted Santana, they could have just taken him. Did they go to Miami and say, "If you've got someone you want, you can pay us $50k so we don't take him. You can't just give us a check for $50k, so let's work out the mechanics by doing it as a draft and swap." Did Miami come to them ahead of time and say, "We've got a guy we really want. Can we work out a trade so you don't make a deal with some other team instead?"

Is that what happened, or do we know more to the story and why it went down that way? 

I think the Marlins approa The Twins about who they were going to pick to help them plan their move and I bet Terry Ryan asked them about a trade to pay their cost of the rule 5 pick so he could go back to the Pohlads and tell them how he got it done for free.  

[Teflon]

Does anybody know what Rules 1 through 4 are? Just curious.

[Doctor Wu]

On 12/5/2023 at 3:15 AM, Cory Engelhardt said:

Scott Diamond had an ok 3 year run 2011-2013, at least in comparison to the rest of the pitching staff at that time. Otherwise I don't know that I can argue any of the choices.

And yes, man, was Shane Mack good. :)

Diamond did indeed have a good run with the Twins for a few years, that very lean time when we didn't have much else in the starting rotation. I might have ranked Pressly a big higher. He had some good years with the Twins, and of course even better ones with Houston. 

[jorgenswest]

Number 1 has to be Jared Camp.

They received Santana and 50000 for him At the close of the draft. Of course it is just silly to put Camp at number 1 instead of Santana. The Twins had the number 1 pick and could have taken anyone but why not get the extra cash? Santana was always their pick.

That number 1 slot has to be Santana (or Camp if you must).

Mack was a great pick but can anyone argue that he is worth more than Santana and 50K?

 

[Fatbat]

On 12/5/2023 at 10:54 AM, Brandon said:

The Twins picked 1rst and Miami 2nd so the Twins picked the player Miami wanted and Miami picked the player the Twins wanted and they made the trade.  Miami kicked in the 50k cost of the rule 5 pick as well making Johan Santana totally free. 

The Pohlads have always been good with saving $$$$