Rule 5 Decisions: Christian Koss

Since it's Gold Glove Week, Let's Talk About a Guy Who Can Really Field!

Photo Credit: Mick Anders | Richmond Flying Squirrels

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

• Aeverson Arteaga

• Carson Ragsdale

• Carson Seymour

Quick updates on the above: Juan Sanchez has been re-signed on a minor league deal. Monday was the deadline for preventing players from becoming minor league free agents and no move was announced regarding Cole Waites, other than that he was restored to the Sacramento roster from the 60-day IL. This might indicate that he was signed to a two-year deal last year, or it might be that he’s now a FA and that transaction just hasn’t been listed yet. I’m seeking clarification there. Regardless, my prediction that the Giants might want to make sure they kept him by adding him to the 40-man clearly hasn’t come to pass. And that, combined with adding Sanchez on a minor league deal, could well put the roster math back in Carson Seymour’s favor.

I am out at the Arizona Fall League this week, and I’ll have a post with observations, interviews, quotes, and, of course, video on the autumn action in the desert coming up on Friday (and, who knows, maybe even Monday as well if I collect enough material while I’m here). In the meantime, I hope you were able to listen to my podcast with Eric Flemming yesterday. I consider it one of my best!

There R Giants Pod-190 with Eric Flemming

As for today, why don’t we continue the Rule 5 series?

This week we saw Giants collect two Gold Gloves — giving the team multiple winners for the first time in eight years, while Patrick Bailey tied the mark for the youngest Gold Glover in Giants’ history at just 25 years old (tying with Joe Panik, Matt Williams, Bobby Bonds, and Jackie Brandt). For the 25-year-old Bailey, that’s now an MLB and MiLB Gold Glove in the last three seasons. Pretty good trendline! But he’s still a ways off Matt Chapman’s pace. Chapman won for the fifth time in his illustrious career — that’s not even counting the Platinum Glove in his closet. If he wins one more, he’ll be tied for the 5th most Gold Gloves for a 3b in history, with a lot of Hall of Famers in front of him. There R Giants most sincere congratulations go out to two guys who provided fans with a lot of reasons to watch Giants’ baseball this year.

And, since De-Fence is the topic du jour, it makes sense to look at the protection case of a glove-first player. In this case, it’s a player who wasn’t even part of the Giants’ organization during spring training. In fact, Christian Koss wouldn’t introduce himself to the staff at Papago Park until an injury sent him there on a rehab stint early in the year. But despite being late to the party, Koss certainly made an impression once he arrived. Was it a big enough impression to earn him some real estate on the 40-man? Let’s investigate….