Rule 5 draft

The Rule 5 draft is a Major League Baseball player draft that occurs each year in December, at the annual Winter Meeting of general managers. The Rule 5 draft aims to prevent teams from stockpiling too many young players on their minor league affiliate teams when other teams would be willing to have them play in the majors. The Rule 5 Draft is named for its place in the Professional Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement. The June Rule 4 draft, known as simply "the draft" or the "amateur draft", is a distinctly different process in which teams select high school and college players.

History

Prior to its current incarnation, from 1959 until the creation of the Rule 4 draft in 1965 top first-year prospects of teams were exposed to the rule 5 draft. This was in some ways an outgrowth of the Bonus Rule that existed in 1946-50 and 1953-57. [ [http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/2005draft/050604bonus.html Baseball America history of the draft] ]

Description

As in the amateur draft, the selection order of the teams is based on each team's win-loss record from the prior regular season, each round starting with the team with the worst record and proceeding in order to the team with the best record. Any player selected under Rule 5 is immediately added to his new team's 40-man roster; thus, teams who do not have an available roster spot may not participate in the Rule 5 draft. Players who are not currently on their team's 40-man roster are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft, but only after a standard exemption period has elapsed. See "Exemptions to Selection Eligibility" below.

If chosen in the Rule 5 draft, a player must be kept on the selecting team's 25-man major league roster for the entire season after the draft--he may not be optioned or designated to the minors. The selecting team may, at any time, waive the Rule 5 draftee. If a Rule 5 draftee clears waivers by not signing with a new MLB team, he must be offered back to the original team, effectively canceling the Rule 5 draft choice. Once a Rule 5 draftee spends an entire season on his new team's 25-man roster, his status reverts to normal and he may be optioned or designated for assignment.

To prevent the abuse of the Rule 5 draft, the rule also states that the draftee must be active for at least 90 days. This keeps teams from drafting players, then placing them on the disabled list for the majority of the season. For example, if a Rule 5 draftee was only active for 67 days in his first season with his new club, he must be active for an additional 23 games in his second season to satisfy the Rule 5 requirements.

Any player chosen in the Rule 5 draft may be traded to any team while under the Rule 5 restrictions, but the restrictions transfer to the new team. If the new team does not want to keep the player on its 25-man roster for the season, he must be offered back to the team of which he was a member when chosen in the draft.

Exemptions to Selection Eligibility

Players signed at age 19 or older are exempt from the Rule 5 draft for three years after being drafted (in the amateur draft) or signed by their current organization; players drafted or signed at age 18 or younger are exempt for four years. For example, players drafted in 2005 (or later) at age 19 (or older) will be exempt from the 2007 Rule 5 draft, as will players drafted in 2004 (or later) at age 18 (or younger).

The exemption periods were extended by one year in October 2006 as part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The change took effect immediately, exempting many players from the 2006 Rule 5 draft even though they had been signed in some cases more than four years before the new agreement came into effect. Prior to the rule change, players were exempt for two or three years after the year they were signed (regardless of the year they were drafted), rather than three or four years.

Cost and Example

To prevent excessive turnover in the minor league levels, each draftee costs $50,000. If the draftee does not stay on the selecting team's 25-man (major league) roster all season, the player must be offered back to his original team at half-price. Organizations may also draft players from AA or lower to play for their AAA affiliates (for $12,000) and may draft players from A teams or lower to play for their AA affiliates (for $4,000).

The Rule 5 draft has opened opportunities for teams to take other team's top prospects who may not be ready for the major leagues. A prominent recent example is Johan Santana, who was chosen in the 1999 Rule 5 draft by the Florida Marlins when the Houston Astros declined to put him on their 40-man roster. After the Marlins traded Santana to the Minnesota Twins for minor leaguer Jared Camp, the Twins kept him on their roster for the 2000 season, despite the pitcher's subpar performance that season (6.49 earned run average) which was unsurprising given his youth and inexperience.

Having kept Santana in the major leagues for all of the 2000 season, the Twins subsequently had the right to option him to their minor league system. By 2002, the more fully developed Santana had returned to the major leagues and established himself as an above-average pitcher. From 2004 to the present, Santana has been considered by many to be the best pitcher in baseball, winning two Cy Young awards. Had he not been chosen in the Rule 5 draft, Santana likely would not have made his major league debut until the 2001 or the 2002 season with the Astros.

Notable Rule 5 draftees

Hall of Famers

*Roberto Clemente

All Stars

*George Bell
*Bobby Bonilla
*Jody Davis
*Darrell Evans
*Kelly Gruber
*Josh Hamilton
*Willie Hernandez
*Dave Hollins
*John Hudek "Selected in minor league portion."
*Mike Morgan
*Scott Podsednik "Selected in minor league portion."
*Bip Roberts
*Johan Santana
*Joakim Soria
*Manny Trillo "Selected in minor league portion."
*Derrick Turnbow
*Dan Uggla

Others

*Luis Ayala
*Kimera Bartee
*Miguel Batista
*Marcos Carvajal
*Fabio Castro
*Doug Corbett
*Callix Crabbe
*Kory DeHaan
*Lenny DiNardo
*Vaughn Eshelman
*Jesús Flores
*Jay Gibbons
*Luis A. Gonzalez
*Jason Grilli
*Tyler Johnson
*David Lamb
*Wilfredo Ledezma
*Manuel Lee
*Graeme Lloyd
*Hector Luna
*Shane Mack
*Matt Mantei
*Juan Mateo
*Henry Owens "Selected in minor league portion."
*Josh Phelps
*Damian Rolls
*Victor Santos
*Chris Shelton
*Andy Sisco
*Adam Stern
*Jason Szuminski
*Willie Upshaw
*Lino Urdaneta
*Eric Valent
*Shane Victorino (twice)

Drafted, but returned or traded before start of season

*Colter Bean
*Frank Brooks
*Cecil Cooper 1970 by St Louis Cardinals, returned to Boston 1971
*Javier López
*Mike Myers
*James Vermilyea
*Fernando Vina
*John Wetteland

Drafted, then traded to the drafting team, nullifying the draft

*R.A. Dickey
*Alejandro Machado
*Marshall McDougall
*Levale Speigner
*Willy Taveras
*Mitch Williams

References

cite web
last = Schwarz
first = Alan
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2002
url = http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/columnists/askbarule5.html
title = Ask BA
publisher = Baseball America
accessdate = 2006-04-19