Blue Jays have Tough Decisions to make about Upcoming Rule 5 Draft

The deadline to protect players for the Rule 5 draft is coming up and the Toronto Blue Jays have some tough decisions to make this year.

The Rule 5 draft occurs every year during the winter meetings. For a player to be eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft, it depends on when they were signed. Those that signed prior to the age of 18 years old must be added to the 40-man roster within five years of that date, and four years for those signing after 19.

For the upcoming Rule 5 draft, the Toronto Blue Jays have some tough decisions to make in regards to who they should protect and who they can afford to expose. In order to protect a player from being exposed, they must add him to their 40 man roster by November 20th.

Currently, the Jays 40 man roster is at 35 players, including the recent addition of Robbie Ray. This leaves for at most five minor league players to be added to the 40 man roster.

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It’s possible that they’ll add five of their minor leaguers to their roster, but they do need to make room for incoming potential free agents and trade acquisitions.

Some notable players they must protect to prevent them from being exposed are as follows: Gabriel Moreno, Otto Lopez, Kevin Smith, Josh Winckowski, Chavez Young, Riley Adams, Ty Tice, and Samad Taylor.

Five of those players mentioned above (Moreno, Lopez, Smith, Winckowski and Young) are among the Jays top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline. Three of those guys (Smith, Adams and Tice) were named to the 60 man player pool for the 2020 season. Meanwhile, Taylor and Young were sent to Australia to play in the Australian Baseball League over the winter.

The Jays front office is going to have a really hard time deciding who they should keep out of the players mentioned above. Their hardest decision will be with their highest ranked exposable prospect which is Moreno (8th). Moreno is a catcher, but the Jays already have three catchers on their 40 man roster. It may not make sense to have four catchers on a 40-man, but they will do this to protect Moreno, unless of course they can work out a trade.

If he were to be exposed to the Rule 5 draft, he would ceertainly be taken by another team as he’s slashed .294/.339/.468 with 172 hits and 63 strikeouts over his minor league career. He could even be taken as high as first overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates who are looking for a future catcher.

Smith, Adams and Tice may also be hard for the front office to let go of, as they must see something in them as they wouldn’t have been added to the player pool for no reason.

While Taylor isn’t among the Jays top 30, he and Young didn’t get sent over to Australia for no reason as they were most likely sent for developmental purposes.

The Jays are in a tough situation in what they should do about the upcoming Rule 5 draft. If they let go of either of the players mentioned, they risk losing them for a mere cost of $100,000.