Twins Pass in MLB Rule 5 Draft, Add Four Players in Minor League Portion

I really thought a team might be able to take a chance on Prato, but glad I was wrong..  It is hard to hide position players on the 26 man.  I was surprised Washington grabbed Nunez, but he has speed and a good eye at the plate but no power and not much of a hit tool.  Prato probably just too old and he had an uneven season last year.  Glad the FO didn't waste any 40 man spots.  They will need them for waiver wire pickups and adding players.

If the Twins are going to promote Lewis, Culpepper, Matthews and maybe Morris or Jones I guess I can see why they grabbed some High A pitchers in the AAA portion of the draft as there is no one left to promote from A ball and if they promote all of Lewis, Culpepper, Matthews they needed at least two more arms which they got in Marcano and Reed.

Escalante looks a bit like Olivar in the Twins system as he has a good OBP and low strike out numbers (balanced line).  Not much in the way of power though, but maybe the Twins think they can unlock something there?

Del Rosario is pretty young and at the lower levels but the A ball options are a bit slim so guessing they just added another wild card because they could?

Overall just happy the Twins didn't lose any players in either phase and were able to build a little depth in spots they could use it.

12 minutes ago, Dman said:

Prato probably just too old and he had an uneven season last year. 

Not nearly as uneven (or downright paradoxical) as the raw stats would indicate. 

His BABIP at AA was absurdly low.  Seemingly the Twins FO took that into account and promoted him to AAA anyway, where he suddenly reversed his BABIP to a likely unsustainably high value. 

His real potential is probably somewhere in between and if you deduct a factor for what he would do if promoted another level higher to the majors, it's not totally surprising no one took a flyer on him.

3 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Not nearly as uneven (or downright paradoxical) as the raw stats would indicate. 

His BABIP at AA was absurdly low.  Seemingly the Twins FO took that into account and promoted him to AAA anyway, where he suddenly reversed his BABIP to a likely unsustainably high value. 

His real potential is probably somewhere in between and if you deduct a factor for what he would do if promoted another level higher to the majors, it's not totally surprising no one took a flyer on him.

Its a 100 to 200 point drop for OPS generally from AAA and that still puts Prato in the 700 OPS range. He also has a very even K and walk rate which is generally an indicator of greater success at the MLB level.  The potential seems to be there if you believe the AAA numbers (Granted high unsustainable BABIP).

A fair number of good bats that seemed like they might get taken no one took and maybe the worst hitter of all of them Nunez got taken.  I assume mainly because of eye at the plate and good defense, but with a .224 BA and .672 OPS those numbers likely don't translate well to MLB at all. Hard to predict the chances teams will take.

Will be watching Prato to see if he is for real or just had a good 4 month run.

12 minutes ago, Verified Member said:

How does a player become eligible for the minor league Rule 5 Draft?

Here's an explanation (from 2019 but it's probably nearly the same today):

https://www.milb.com/news/the-rule-5-draft-explained-311955076

Basically, after the major league phase is completed, each team can protect 38 more players in the minors.  The same rules of eligibility (number of seasons played, depending on age when they started) apply, so no recently-drafted or recently-signed prospects can be drafted in either of the phases.

I didn't expect them to take anyone. Maybe if one of the early names like Matt Sauer fell to them.

Nice to see they didn't lose anyone, but we'd be alright without Prato or Keirsey.

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Least shocking news of the day. The angst over this every year....

It's been a slow off-season. We need something to over analyze and critique until the next minor league signing.

39 minutes ago, Jacksson said:

Predictable = After all $100,000 IS $100,000 especially when you constantly preach poverty.

Rule-5 guys invariably earn Major League minimum salary.  So had the Twins filled up their 4 open spots on the 40-man this way, we'd be using that as evidence of miserliness instead.

1 hour ago, jorgenswest said:

I wonder if not losing anyone is a sign that their system is not as strong. It is great not to lose anyone. Is it better to have so much depth that teams want the back end of that depth when they have to be left available?

I was thinking about that too.  They lose someone: "Woe is us!"  They lose no one: "Woe is really us!"