Rule 5 Decision: Jose Cruz

Is he RandyRod Redux?

This is the second in a series focusing on the Giants’ upcoming Rule 5 protection choices. There’s a fairly large selection of players who present challenging decisions, so we’ll take a look at them one by one. In previous editions, we’ve looked at:

• Hunter Bishop

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The pop up arm is a staple of the lower levels. A kid with a loose, whippy arm suddenly hits the point at which the projection kicks in and out of nowhere….a monster! As the old baseball movie title says, it happens every spring (Side note: I haven’t seen the Ray Milland vehicle, about a scientist who invents a formula that repels wood and uses it to become a star pitcher, in more than half a century; but my childhood memory tells me it was a great baseball movie!).

This spring, it happened with Jose Cruz, who became a critical part of the San Jose pitching staff. BUT, did it happen to such a degree that the organization needs to think about adding the 22 year old to the major league roster, following in the footsteps of Camilo Doval, Gregory Santos, and Randy Rodriguez? That’s the question that we are gathered here today to examine.

SFGProspects @SFGProspects

Jose Cruz struck out 3 in his scoreless inning of work, topping at 97mph, in the AA game vs the Cubs