Rule 5 Decisions: Aeverson Arteaga

Is Arteaga a better choice a year later?

For the next couple of weeks we’ll be examining the major cases of Rule 5 protection candidates, to see who the Giants might choose to add to the 40-man roster this year. The Rule 5 protection deadline this year is November 19. So far in the Rule 5 Decisions series, we’ve looked at:

• Setting Up the Rule 5 Decisions

• Cole Waites

• Juan Sanchez

Alright, after dispensing with the cases of a couple of impending free agents, let’s focus our sights on an actual Rule 5 eligible protection case. As I said in the setting up post*, a lot of the decisions this year will focus on repeat cases — players who have already been eligible for the draft in past years. So, let’s start our case studies with a player who was one of the primary first-year eligible players a year ago: shortstop Aeverson Arteaga.

*One player I did totally forget to mention in the setting up post is Evan Gates, who signed as an UDFA in the summer of 2021 and who has reached Triple-A quicker than most of his drafted org-mates. Sorry about missing you, Evan!

I think it bears repeating that being eligible for a Rule 5 draft and going unselected is not any kind of referendum on a player’s future. Just to take one obvious case, Tyler Rogers twice went unselected in the draft — despite strong performances in Triple-A — before he was finally given a shot at big league action. And, of course, just last year we saw Grant McCray go undrafted, only to make a decent impression in his big league debut. Max Muncy, Ramon Laureano, Tommy Pham, Nestor Cortes, Ryan O’Hearn, and many, many other players have established valuable big league careers after going unprotected and unselected in the Rule 5 draft.

Each player travels their own path in their own time, and not being big league ready one year doesn’t necessarily mean the same 12 months later. But, in Arteaga, we have a unique situation for a repeat-eligible player. Arteaga, whom the Giants didn’t protect a year ago, went undrafted last year and then proceeded to miss nearly the entire year since then due to thoracic outlet surgery. So, if he wasn’t at an attractive enough point in his development to entice any team to call his name last year, then he should be a pretty easy “No” call for us this year, right? After all, what could have happened in a year in which he saw just a handful of reps that would change the calculation?

It seems like an open and shut case, but maybe things aren’t always quite what they seem….