Rule 5 Decisions: Setting Things Up

And now the year to come begins to draw our attention. Though the World Series has yet to begin, in 26 other front offices, the hard work of crafting next year’s roster has begun in earnest. On the day after that final series ends, eligible players will become free agents (or, in the case of certain minor leaguers, be added to the 40-man roster to prevent them becoming such), and we’ll start steam-rolling into an offseason calendar full of landmark dates such as the deadline for tendering contracts, and, of course, the mid-November deadline for protecting players from the upcoming Rule 5 draft.

That’s where we come in! As usual, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll take a look at the cases for (and against) protection for most of the major players in this year’s Rule 5 class. But before we get to the individual cases, I’ll use today’s post to set up the Rule 5 decision-making process for this year.

For the players who do end up getting added to the 40-man, the decision is a real life changer. It connects players to the major league coaching staff and facilities, guarantees them a spot in major league camp (with an accompanying per diem that can amount to a pretty healthy supplemental salary for a kid who’s been living on minor league wages for years), and earns them a higher salary even while they’re still performing in the minors. Most importantly, of course, it opens up a clear path to a big league debut. When Trevor McDonald made his debut on the final day of the season this year, it meant that every player on the 40-man had seen time in the majors, (and only lefty Ethan Small, who spent most of the year on the 60-day IL, failed to appear in the majors this year). Players we profiled in this series a year ago — Erik Miller to take one obvious example — went from roster question mark to roster staple in the intervening months.

Yes, getting added to the 40-man is a pretty big deal!

So let’s spend today taking a look at some of the nuts and bolts of this decision-making process before diving into nitty gritty of specific players in the coming days.

Programing Note: The Rule 5 Decisions will begin on Friday following an October Free For All Mailbag coming on Wednesday — get your questions in now!