Friday On The Rox: Rule 5 time for the Rockies 40-man roster

Today is the day the Rockies must decide which players they will add to the 40-man roster for the purpose of protection from December’s Rule 5 Draft. For those unfamiliar, the Rule 5 Draft is one of the two annual player drafts and unlike the First-Year Player Draft, Rule 5 is a draft where MLB teams draft other teams prospects. Here are the main rules according to MLB.com:

What happens when a player is selected in the Rule 5 Draft?

A team that selects a player in the Rule 5 Draft pays $50,000 to the team from which he was selected. The receiving team must then keep the player on the Major League 25-man roster for the entirety of the next season, and the selected player must remain active (not on the disabled list) for a minimum of 90 days. If the player does not remain on the Major League roster, he is offered back to the team from which he was selected for $25,000. If his original team declines, the receiving team may waive the player.

Once a player is selected, he is automatically assigned to his new organization’s 40-man roster.

Can any Minor League player be drafted?

No. Players who were signed when they were 19 or older and have played in professional baseball for four years are eligible, as are players who were signed at 18 and have played for five years.

All players on a Major League Baseball team’s 40-man roster, regardless of other eligibility factors, are “protected” and ineligible for the Rule 5 Draft.

So which notable Rockies prospects are eligible? According to RockiesRoster.com here are some of the players who are eligible to be drafted, Matt Carasiti, Carlos Estevez, Emerson Jimenez, Helmis Rodriguez, Trevor Story, Antonio Senzatela, and Raimel Tapia.

Carasiti is a right-handed pitcher who was drafted in the 6th round of the 2012 MLB draft. He had a very good season as a reliever for High-A Modesto. In 49 appearances, he had a 3.02 ERA and a 1.341 WHIP, recording 22 saves for the Nuts.

Estevez is a 22-year-old right-hander who split the year between High-A Modesto and Double-A New Britan. He also played for the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona fall league where he recorded 5 saves in 10 innings. During the regular season, he had a 3.40 ERA between the two levels with 18 saves in 48 appearances.

Jimenez is a switch-hitting shortstop who split the season between Single-A Asheville and High-A Modesto. He is ranked by MLB.com as the Rockies 28th best prospect, but he had a very poor year, hitting .197 in 108 games. The 20-year old has not had much success outside of rookie ball.

Rodriguez is a 21-year old left-handed pitcher from Venezuela. He spent the year with Ashville starting 27 games, recording a 3.36 ERA and a 9-8 record. MLB.com ranks him as the Rockies 27th best prospect.

Story is a 23-year old infielder who had a stellar year which was spent between New Britan and Triple-A Albuquerque. He slashed .279/.350/.514 in 130 games and he made an appearance in MLB’s Futures Game. Story ranks as one of the 100 best prospects in baseball and more likely than not he will see action in the big leagues in 2016. Story’s great 2015 which has him named within many Rockies top ten prospect lists came as a big rebound year after a disappointing 2014 where preseason he was ranked as high as the 34th best prospect in baseball.

Senzatela is a 20-year old right-handed pitcher who spent the year with the Modesto Nuts. in 2014, he had a 15-2 record leading Ashville to a South Atlantic League title. Although his win-loss record worsened his pitching improved. The California League’s pitcher of the year had a 2.51 ERA and a 1.065 WHIP in 154 innings. MLB.com’s 13th best Rockies prospect struck out batters at a rate of 8.4 batters per nine innings.

Tapia is a 21-year old polarizing left-handed outfield prospect. He’s polarizing because some publications have named him the Rockies top prospect while others don’t even have him on their top ten lists. One thing is for sure, he is a hitting machine, slashing .305/.333/.467 in 131 games for the Modesto Nuts. Tapia was featured in MLB’s Futures Game and he OPS’ed .821 in the Arizona Fall League.

Prediction: Estevez, Story, Senzatela, and Tapia are added to the 40-man roster and four of the following six players are removed Rex Brothers, Jason Gurka, Rafael Ynoa, Wilin Rosario, Rosell Herrera, John Axford.

Purple Row just ran a full post on this subject which includes every single player edible so I’ll direct you towards their work in the link below.

Links:

Purple Row / Bryan Kilpatrick // Rockies face 40-man roster decisions this week

BK runs down Rule 5 Draft eligible players in a handy little list.

Hartford Courant/ Paul Doyle // Yard Goats Unveil New Baseball Team Uniforms — All 5 Of Them

The Rockies Double-A affiliate unveiled their snazzy new uniforms which they’ll be wearing for their inaugural season in Hartford.

Denver Post / Patrick Saunders // Nolan Arenado drops agent Scott Boras; what’s it mean for Rockies?

In what could be huge news for the Rockies, all-star third baseman Nolan Arenado is no longer a client of super agent Scott Boras. Saunders reflect on what we are all now wondering, “Could the elimination of the powerful Boras mean a more favorable climate for a long-term deal between the Rockies and Arenado?”

MLB.com/ Thomas Harding // Rockies’ righties in ‘pen could provide boost

Harding talks about Jairo Diaz, Scott Oberg and Justin Miller as “the righty contingent” coming out of the bullpen.

Notes:

• David Ortiz will call it a career after this season.
• Shortstop Brandon Crawford agreed to a $75 million, six-year contract extension with the Giants
• Bryce Harper and Josh Donaldson win respective MVPs.
• Collin McHugh and Jake Arrieta win respective Cy Youngs.
• Cliff Pennington has been the only free agent to switch teams on a Major League deal, signing with Anaheim.

Twitter’s Top Five:

https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/667574856117014528

https://twitter.com/BotStove/status/667510557948407808

https://twitter.com/BotStove/status/667389763058573313

Oh boo hoo, NHLers might get tired in the All-Star Game. Try playing beer league like the rest of us. "We got six guys tonight."

— Jason Brough 🙁 (@SadClubCommish) November 19, 2015

Top Tweet:

.@PKSubban1 my pleasure buddy pic.twitter.com/STheGgca3H

— Dale Weise (@daleweise22) November 18, 2015

Music for the weekend:

Released last month, Dallas Green‘s new album If I Should Go Before You is, of course, terrific. You may know the Canadian legend him from You+Me or Alexisonfire, but this is one of his best and most complete albums. Below is one of the songs receiving a lot of play Wasted Love, have a great weekend.

“Friday On The Rox” is BSN Denver’s weekly highlights from baseball, and other stuff! It’s our favorite links, articles, gifs, Vines, stories, pictures, tweets, or really anything that we like that we saw in the world from the week. Of course, we’ll make it Rockies-centric.