Ranking the Top Rule 5 Draft Picks in Twins History

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.

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.  

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.

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.  

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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?

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 $$$$