The MLB Rule 5 draft takes place today at 5:00 PM EST. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the third overall pick in the draft. We’ve looked at some of the players available, as well as names of Pirates players who could be lost in the draft today.
Here are some names that might interest the Pirates.
Here’s a look at the top available names from the Pirates.
Tim Williams looked at the importance of the Rule 5 draft earlier today.
On average, teams have a player selected every other year. However, teams have a player that sticks with another team every three years.
In most cases, the Rule 5 draft is boring for teams, but the Pirates left some decent prospects unprotected AND they have two open spots on the 40-man roster to make 1-2 selections.
The minor league portion of the draft is usually busier. A look at the list of names that need to be protected on the 38-man roster of the Triple-A squad showed more than 38 interesting names for the Pirates. There’s a chance they could lose some lesser prospects on the minor league side.
Whether or not they decide to pick someone will be seen when the Triple-A current roster number is announced. If there are 38 players on the roster, they can’t make any picks.
We will post live updates below as the picks are made.
With the third overall pick, the Pirates selected lefty pitcher Jose Hernandez from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the fourth pick, Blake Sabol went to the Cincinnati Reds.
Pirates passed in the second round.
Minor League portion
Pirates lost RHP Joelvis Del Rosario with the first pick
Pirates took RHP Wei-Chieh Huang with their first pick from the San Francisco Giants. He had big league experience in 2019
Pirates lost LHP Joe Jacques to the Boston Red Sox
Pirates lost RHP Wilkin Ramos to the New York Mets
Pirates lost RHP Domingo Gonzalez to the Atlanta Braves
second round
Pirates selected Josh Palacios from the Washington Nationals. He has played in the majors each of the last two seasons.
Pirates lost RHP Austin Roberts to the Miami Marlins
Pirates lost OF Jared Oliva to the Los Angeles Angels
Pirates lost LHP Trey McGough to the Baltimore Orioles
Pirates lost RHP Enmanuel Mejia to the Tampa Bay Rays
third round
Pirates lost RHP Cristian Charle to the Miami Marlins
Pirates lost RHP Peter Solomon to the Arizona Diamondbacks
Pirates lost INF Yoyner Fajardo to the Minnesota Twins
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Lose a few bums, sign a few bums. Nothing to see here.
My problem with losing all the minor leaguers was that the announced AAA roster had only 31 out of 38 spots used. Why so many open slots?
One drawback to losing so many minor leaguers is that they won’t be available to trade as part of a package deal. For example, one of them might have been included if/when the Pirates trade Reynolds.
I like Sabol and am sorry he’s gone. I think he could be a useful major leaguer. I’m not too broken up about it though. If he does well, then it’s just one more thing to complain about. As a Pirates fan, there’s a pretty long list.
I could think of it as a trade for the lefty reliever we picked. I haven’t even looked into him yet. We’ll see if he sticks.
in 1999 Scott Sauerbeck had a 2.00 era across 67 innings pitched
I don’t understand preferring “holding hernandez on mlb team” to “holding sabol on the 40 man but in AAA” but whatever. Idgaf.
I see that 2 former Buccos were signed to minor league deals today. Cole Tucker to the Rockies and Austin Brice to the Dbacks. Other teams even want guys that stunk with us as well. lol!
I actually like Tucker’s personality and his athletic *ability, lol. But I’m beginning to think he’s avoiding getting a real job.
Sabol was traded to the Giants for cash or a PTBNL.
higher chance he gets returned now imo
I dunno. The Giants aren’t as dumb as the Reds.
The Giants will get a couple bombs from him in the Bay someday, lol.
well no. but i expect they want to win. so idk if they’d want to carry a rookie outfielder the entire year.
reds are rebuilding, and don’t care to win, so it wouldn’t be a problem to keep sabol on the roster.
One thing I’ve learned living out west and following the Giants. They know what they’re doing.
i’m sure. they were smart enough to grab sabol, after all!
Well they did need someone to play the outfield since they lost out on Judge 🙂
I’m impressed that all you other commenters know all these players. I guess you can thank Pirates Prospects! Reminder – maybe only two out of every 40 taste the majors.
Who said we knew all of these players? 🤓😏
Sssshhhhhh!! You are supposed to politely say thanks and appreciate the admiration! It’s good to look intelligent and you have to keep the story going so you keep looking intelligent! Never let on that it is anything different than they think 🤣🤣
My management approach was to announce my ignorance and ask colleagues to educate me.
Hey, the Nuke Laloosh approach, play the game with fear and ignorance!
I guess the pirates had more quality than I thought they had. I am glad Bolton, Alveres and Gorski were not selected.
And Nunez?
That’s our future 1B. The P2 people liked him to be on the 40, but BC gambled because he had very little AAA experience, is very young, and is a 1B. Then one of the first picks is a 26 year old power hitting 1B, Ryan Noda. Glad to see Malcom Nunez still with the Pirates.
The LHRP, Jose Hernandez, will help the Pirates. Another kid from the DR with good size at 6’3″ 205, big arm (upper 90’s), VG K/BB/9 numbers of 10.9/4.2 in 39 IP at AA, 9.4/3.0 in 21 IP at A+, and 8 Saves. Turns 25 New Years Eve.
Well, all of the excitement is over. NOW what do we have to look forward to until Spring Training? Who gets DFA’d? What placeholder catcher do we sign? Some backend roster tinkering?
Life as a Pirate fan is mucho exhilarating!! 🤩🤩
International signing period.
Did you ever read John’s articles on top Latin prospects? I used to save them to check out how they did five yrs down the line. I got depressed, so I quit doing it. 😫😫
Maybe muy emocionante
Well, it’s over. Lost a Sabol and and handful of lower level minor leaguers that only really heard of a couple of the names. Definitely not gonna lose any sleep. 🙂
Well, at least we kept Gorski and Nunez. Life is good for me now!
And the first pick next summer. Who cares about a bunch of failed picks or returned players? That seems to be what comes of these dudes. Or so I have read.
Agree 100%.
Ditto!
Ok, ok, ok, I’ve heard the 1,000 disclaimers about how unimportant the Rule V draft is (especially the minor league portion). But losing 11 players in 3 rounds of the minor league phase seems problematic. The only ones I have concern about are Joelvis, Meijia and Charle. But the quantity seems to be the issue. How do we explain being pilfered for so many guys other teams seem to feel interested in? I imagine at least one of the players taken will become a solid major league reliever, at least. Del Rosario was an exciting part of last year’s Bradenton rotation and seemed like he could have a future as a starter even.
Oh well on Sabol. Maybe they’ll get him back, maybe not. Worth a dice roll to get a lefty reliever. But the minor league phase seems like it was poorly protected against by management.
Were any of them even in our Top 30 prospect list? We lost minor league depth, that is all. We’ll just have to do some aggressive promoting. The odds of ANY of those in the minor league portion doing anything of consequence in the majors is slim. I doubt that anybody outside of their families and us know their names.
In a sense, we traded Sabol for Hernandez. Just looking at Hernandez’s minor league record and age, I don’t think I’d make that trade. But Fangraphs does have the two ranked comparably (35+).
I’d do it. I liked Sabol, but he was going to be nothing more than a bench bat. Hernandez has the potential to be a halfway decent lefty RP. Or he might get returned to LA by June, lol.
Palacios is basically another Oliva. Hits for average, modest power, decent speed, roughly the same age (Palacios is 4 months older). That’s a wash.
But otherwise, man that minor league phase thinned the herd a lot. I’m bummed about Charle, McGough and del Rosario.
Meh. Let’s see if any of them ever do anything, first. I recognize a few names, but none were top prospects. We’ll be fine.
Given the caliber of players protected, there was NO reason to lose Sabol.
Other than ineptitude of course.
He’ll be back.
That’s what Ahnold said and he didn’t disappoint!
So yeah, it looks like it’s Teng and not Huang from the Giants
https://twitter.com/justdelossantos/status/1600626353908293632?s=20&t=UKfQ_ULE4xLM2GicDwGXYA
MiLB.com has Huang listed with Indy.
I noticed last night he deleted the tweet I linked, and updated with Huang.
Ha. Couldn’t blame anyone considering how badly the Pirate staffer garbled the name.
Looks interesting at least 🙂
That’s definitely better, high K% at AA as a 23 year-old, but wild.
If he wasn’t wild, he wouldn’t have been available. 🤓🤓
OK, let the betting begin on who gets DFAed. One spot is needed. Vilade?
Diego C or Underwood?
They tendered Underwood. If I’m not mistaken the rules changed in this CBA, so they can no longer get away with paying 45 days severance, they have to guarantee his salary. I think it might be Kranick or Ramirez.
Diego or Tucu, then, maybe even Shelton. 😎😎😎
maybe even Shelton
Longenhagen’s brief summary of Hernandez”
“Hernandez sat 94-96 mph during spring viewings and his fastball has backspin and tough-to-hit angle that make it a weapon at the top of the strike zone. His mid-80s changeup has enough bottom-out action to miss the occasional bat, while his breaking ball has added significant power, averaging 80 mph in 2021 but bending in in the 83-86 mph range this spring. Though projecting solely in relief, Hernandez is a lefty in the mid-90s with potential for three average or better pitches.”
If Hernandez can live up to this, or come close, it easily wipes out the rest of the day.
Seems like a shockingly high number to lose in the minor league phase, not that those players are likely to be more than replacement level.
Lost a ton of mid-level pitching depth. Sorry to see a lot of them go, but the only one I think they may regret is Charle. Maybe McGough.
Baltimore taking McGough worries me. They seem to know what they’re doing now, so it’s like the Rays and their, “Yeah, sure, we’ll take that bad pitcher….”
My dislikes were McGough, Jacques, and Charle.
Jeez, some of these folks need a home to go to.
Phillies drafted a whole team.
Just think of the guys that were on the rosters with Philly…..They will be fearing the Reaper………..
really no reason to not use the full allotment of players you can keep right? i don’t get it
Geesh…..are all these guys due to Dellicarri’s team of scouts?? Says something.
Lot of ’em are int’l guys, so Vizcaino.
9 MiL guys lost so far?
Make that 10.
What is going on? lol
Is that 20 players we’ve lost?
Well, Solomon doesn’t count.
Well, losing Cristian Charle does annoy me.
Wait, what? lol did the Pirates try to take a restricted guy, and then not allowed?
Probably they thought that meant they wouldn’t have to pay him, but got corrected.
rule v draft has been gone for so long the pirates forgot how it works
Wow that cleared out some minor league pitching real quick.
losing all these players
As a Northwestern alum and a Pirate fan, I know just how that GIF feels…
Man, McGough now?
Another lowkey guy I liked.
Interesting, I think they’re going to need to promote pitchers aggressively. Or sign a ton of MiL FAs, which I’d hate to see.
Altoona getting hammered.
Pirates losing a lot of depth guys. Even Oliva.
Josh Palacios from the Nats, whose system sucks.
Not enthused about losing Wilkin Ramos or Domingo Gonzalez. Usual caveat about how they’ll probably top out at AA.
Pirates have lost 4 so far? Sorry, I am watching the live streaming of the Pirates vs Astros Tucker Barnhart bidding war.
“The Pirates have interest . . . .”
Pirate expression of interest:
If you want to play for free
Nutland is the place to be.
If your kids don’t need to eat
Our special pay plan is a treat
At least six.
domingo nooooo
One way to thin the lower level arms lol
Who remembers the outlet that called this? Somebody has some connections?
You mean called it as a likely flop? I remember the article but can’t remember where it was. Just that the main point was that teams were mostly over it.
Sorry, no, my drug-addled memory thought that some national outlet was the first to mention that Blake Sabol was being targeted by other teams. Came as a surprise to me, and sure enough…
Oh, yeah, don’t know about national but Stumpf quite some time ago said Sabol would get picked.
There WAS a national guy who wrote that teams just don’t see much percentage in R5 any more.
Ah, Stumpf, thanks Wilbur!
He seems to have some pretty good scout contacts.
Losing Sabol sucks, but IMO better than losing Gorski. Would have loved seeing his bat reach the bigs next year. Hard for me to root against him to the point that he is offered back, in which case, he’s probably not an ML player.
Rats, the submariner gone.
There goes goofy LHP Joe Jacques
Playing time for Sabol was gonna hard to come by, hope he gets them in Cincy
I really thought Shelton would squash any pick, after what happened with Oviedo.
Pirates select somebody somebody.
A very big kid
And he’s 28
Well, wait, I’m not sure who they picked.
The pitcher the Pirates just took? He’s 24
Ohhh, wait. I’m looking at the wrong guy
Teng or Huang? The Pirate staffer was incomprehensible.
Stumpf says Teng
Not sure how he’d even know.
Dreker has it above in story……Huang. Age 29.
Weird
An Asian……unusual unless it’s Darvish
There goes Polamalu’s cousin to Cincy…Wish you a good career except against us Blake Sabol
Del Rosario gone.
There’s one right off the bat.
The Pirates only have 31 on the AAA roster?
AAA PHASE begins. Yankees won’t shut up lol
I apologize in advance for Friday’s Weekly Discussion that’ll just be: “I’m depressed”
May be over.
Damn, unless you’re the Dodgers, that was uneventful.