The 2017 Winter Meetings wrapped up on Thursday morning with the annual Rule 5 draft. The draft was created to keep teams from stockpiling young talent while preventing them from playing in the majors.
To put it as simply as possible, players in the team’s minor league system that have at least five years of service time — in some circumstances, four — and are not on the 40-man roster are eligible to be selected. The acquiring team pays $100,000 and must keep the selected player on the MLB roster for the entire upcoming season. If the team opts not to do that, they must offer the player back to the original club for $50,000.
Teams wanting to participate in the Rule 5 draft must be under the 40-man roster limit to begin the draft. The draft order is the same as the upcoming Rule 4 draft — the first-year player draft that takes place every June — with every team getting the opportunity to make a selection or pass. Once every team has passed once, the draft is over and moves on to Triple- and Double-A phases.
Picks cannot be formally traded, but trades frequently happen just afterward, allowing teams to use their place in order as an asset. The Twins acquired Johan Santana this way, as he was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 1999 Rule 5 draft and immediately flipped to Minnesota for right-hander Jared Camp, who never pitched in the major leagues and pitched only 27.1 innings above Double-A. Santana meanwhile won a pair of Cy Youngs and is regarded among the best Rule 5 picks of all-time, with Roberto Clemente, Josh Hamilton, Dan Uggla and others.
The Twins used the No. 1 selection to their advantage, as they selected right-handed pitcher Miguel Diaz from the Milwaukee Brewers before flipping him to the Padres. In return, the Twins received right-handed pitcher Justin Haley, who was selected with the eighth pick in the draft. Haley was selected by the Padres from the Boston Red Sox before being shipped to the Twins. Haley is still subject to the same rules as far as needing to remain on the Twins 25-man roster all season.
The Twins also acquired a player to be named later or cash in the trade.
The Twins’ most successful recent selection in the Rule 5 draft also came from Boston — right-handed reliever Ryan Pressly. Pressly was coming off a successful stint in the Arizona Fall League — a Twins Rule 5 staple — when he was selected after the 2012 season, and had worked as a reliever in Double-A after a tough stretch in High-A Salem.
It took a little time, but Pressly ultimately developed into a solid late-inning reliever for the Twins, as his stuff gradually ticked up to the point where he’s in the mid-90s with his fastball to go with a pair of plus breaking ball offerings.
Haley is a bit more advanced than Pressly. The 6-foot-5, 230 lb. righty spent the second half of last season in the rotation at Triple-A Pawtucket, posting a 3.59 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and a WHIP of 1.13. He faced the Twins Triple-A affiliate Rochester twice down the stretch, as he took the loss in his first game against them on June 28 (5 IP, six hits, three earned runs, three strikeouts and three walks) before defeating the Wings just under a month later (six innings, seven hits, four earned runs, five strikeouts and three walks). All told, he allowed three home runs to Rochester, one to a rehabbing Miguel Sano in the first start and then to Adam Brett Walker and Byungho Park in his second outing.
Haley was a 46th-round pick of the Cleveland Indians in 2010 but did not sign out of Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. Haley moved onto Fresno State, and improved his draft stock to the point where was taken in the sixth round of the 2012 draft. Through five seasons in the Red Sox system, Haley has a 3.41 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a WHIP of 1.27. He too pitched well in the Arizona Fall League — though it was last season as opposed to this year — and is also carving up batters in the Dominican Winter League presently. He’s got a 0.38 ERA down there so far.
SoxProspects.com has a very good report on Haley. They say he throws from a high three-quarters arm slot and works 89-92 mph with his fastball, peaking at 95 mph. He has thrown both a curve and slider in the past, with the latter sounding like the better offering. Their phrasing is a bit difficult to understand on the report, suggesting he has “only shown the curveball in outings in 2015.” It’s not clear if that means he threw only the curve in 2015, or that he didn’t throw the curve in previous seasons but added it in 2015. Regardless, it doesn’t sound like either project as earth-shattering offerings. Haley also has an average changeup with drop and fade. The evaluator at SoxProspects suggests that Haley looks like a fifth starter of swingman in the big leagues.
John Sickels at MinorLeagueBall.com broke down all the picks. As a brief aside, he said Diaz had a fairly good chance to stick at the back of San Diego’s bullpen with a 94-95 mph fastball and a “slider which flashes plus.” As for Haley, Sickels says he has a “complete four-pitch arsenal” — which seems to clear up the slider/curve question — with deception and strike-throwing ability.
Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser called Haley’s windup “possibly the coolest pre-pitch setup in the minors.” I won’t spoil the rest, as the read is worth your time. Glaser said Haley’s velo ticked up as the season went on, while his stuff ticks up with good location.
Haley’s splits in Triple-A came out really solid. He allowed opposing batters to hit just .230/.294/.365 with a 44 percent groundball rate and 10 percent whiff rate. Haley’s last three starts for the PawSox — 2.41 ERA, .602 OPS against, 19-5 K/BB ratio in 18.2 innings — were probably his most impressive. If his stuff were to tick up in the bullpen, he could probably find himself moving up the totem pole rather quickly. As it stands now, he should still have a fairly good shot to start the season as the long guy out of the bullpen — something the Twins lacked for most of last season.
The Twins also lost catcher Stuart Turner in the Rule 5 draft, as he was taken by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round. Turner, who was Rule 5 eligible after four minor league seasons because he signed after age 19, hit just .241/.325/.352 in four seasons in the Twins system. He threw out 40 percent of attempted base thieves last season and hit .239/.322/.363 in 370 plate appearances at Double-A Chattanooga. His best bet is to let the glove carry his bat, as he’ll likely settle in as a Drew Butera type in the big leagues — assuming he sticks.
