Rule 5 Decisions....and the rest!

A quick journey through the final decisions

Photo Credit: Trey Wilson | Richmond Flying Squirrels

One thing about the Giants — they always wait until the very last moment to announce personnel moves. That makes it very easy to schedule a series like this and know that right down to the final moment there will still be a level of suspense. Not like those teams that have already started adding players to their 40-man a week ahead of the deadline. Pffffft! Must be horrible trying to schedule posts around teams like that. Not the Giants. Deadlines are decisions days!

And, as it happens, the deadline for this particular decision comes tomorrow. So, today we’ll need to hurry through some of the remaining major players who have reached protection status at this point. Obviously, if I haven’t devoted a full post to players, then I don’t really believe they’re likely to be added. Everybody today will ultimately be a “No” vote, but they’re all worth knowing about and briefly catching up on their progress.

As always, I’ll add the caveat that “not being a serious candidate for Rule 5 protection” and “not having a future in the big leagues” are very much separate things. Many factors go into deciding who does and doesn’t need to be protected that have little to do with talent, and many players are left out in the open for any team to poach who go on to be highly productive major leaguers, like our own Tyler Rogers (a two-time non-protected, non-selected player) or Villain for Life Max Muncy. This isn’t necessarily a referendum on a player’s talent, just an intersection of development and circumstances.

So, lightning round style, let’s meet some of the rest of our candidates!