Rule 5 Results: Twins Take Miguel Diaz, Likely To Trade

I'm going to stick my neck out and say we get him back via Rule 5's methods, before next off-season. The Reds also took a Yankees catcher in the first round, and probably they are thinking they will try to keep one or the other but not both. Since more than half of Rule 5 picks get offered back anyway, or a trade is worked out satisfactory to both teams, and Turner was apparently the Reds' second choice, I'll be surprised if he sticks. 

 

Particularly since he managed only a .646 OPS in AA last year. His bat's just not ready, and has low upside at best, so it'll be hard to keep a glove-only catcher all year.

Well, the Reds other catcher pick Luis Torrens only managed a .664 in A ball last year (not even high-A).  They may have picked him higher to try to flip him, knowing they could get a guy like Turner later?

The Reds are pretty thin at catcher and seem determined to rebuild slowly, so who knows.

EDIT: And it's done! Torrens flipped to the Padres.

So San Diego not only traded for Diaz, the first pick but for Luis Torrens the 2nd pick; they also personally had the 3rd pick.

 

All of these guys were in A ball or rookie leagues last years, I am extremely curious about their end-game. Surely they can't carry all three, they didn't figure out a genius loophole in the process did they?

I think if they are cheap, and you have the 40-man room, you might as well grab a bunch now and pick the best one at the end of spring training.  Improves your odds in the Rule 5 draft considerably.  Heck, if they play DL games, they could probably roster 2 all season using only 1 roster spot, if they wanted.

Twins get this kid from the Padres.

 

http://www.gaslampball.com/2016/12/8/13882902/padres-ss-allen-cordoba-cardinals-rule-5-draft

 

Interesting, either he's a starter or utility.  Would make Escobar SS?  Then Polanco to 2B?  Maybe readying Dozier trade.

Is that speculation, or is this confirmed somewhere? I haven't seen anything about the Twins taking on a second Rule 5 pick.

I don't think Cordoba is coming to the Twins.  We're getting a PTBNL or cash for Diaz:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/12/padres-acquire-rule-5-picks-miguel-diaz-luis-torrens.html

I am super confused about what the heck is going on here with this draft and who we will end up with when it is all said and done

Sounds pretty clear that we got Haley.

But indeed it was confusing.  MLBTR breaks it down like this:

Diaz: Brewers –> Twins –> Padres
Torrens: Yankees –> Reds –> Padres
Haley: Red Sox –> Angels –> Padres –> Twins

I have no idea why Haley had to go to the Padres first, and not directly from the Angels to the Twins... although maybe he didn't really, I think it may have been a 3-way trade that just got mis-reported.

I've been searching my history and I'm not finding it, so my post on Cordoba could be wrong.  

Not a problem.  It would make more sense to trade the top pick Diaz for the #3 pick Cordoba, but alas, that's not what happened.

I'm still kind of confused how we got the 10th pick Haley, if that's the guy we wanted all along. We pretty much had to know that none of the other teams picking in the top 10 wanted him?  And what do the Angels get out of this?  Part of the cash we will receive from the Padres for Diaz, I suppose?

Does anyone know if SD still gets their international signing pool even though they are penalized for going over last year? As in they still get the $4.5M or whatever, but they can't sign anyone over $X amount. If that was the case, then they might have a ton of that pool money to spend to help facilitate trades for these Rule 5 picks.

Normally, yes -- they get the full pool, but can't sign anyone for more than $300k.  So they can trade some "slots" in that pool that would otherwise be of little use to them.

But the Padres just went over in the current signing period.  So they're not subject to the $300k per player limit until next July.  If they traded slots now, they'd probably just have to pay an increased corresponding penalty, no?