Formal List of Brewers Rule 5 Eligibles

[Mass Haas]

Here's the list of Brewers farmhands eligible to be taken in Wednesday December 7th's Rule 5 Draft. The 62 names should be accurate, but feel free to point out any discrepancies you may catch. Each link points to the players' respective Baseball Reference page.

The Brewers can place up to 38 players on a paper AAA roster (we don't get to see that). Those 38 players could be plucked in the Major League phase of Rule 5, but not the Minor League Phase. Any players lost in the Minor League Phase do not have to be on a major league roster all of 2023, it's simply a way for organizations to grab players to fill needs.
 

C Alex Jackson

C Nick Kahle

C Brian Navarreto

C Brent Diaz

C Jason Lopez

C Jose Sibrian

C Alex Hall

C Jhonnys Cabrera

***

1B/C Thomas Dillard

1B Ernesto Martinez

1B Jesus Chirinos

***

INF Cam Devanney

SS Eduardo Garcia

INF Patrick Dorrian

INF Andruw Monasterio

INF Eddy Alvarez

INF Gabe Holt

INF/OF Felix Valerio

INF Jose Acosta

INF Ashton McGee

3B Branlyn Jaraba

INF Alberis Ferrer

***

OF Tristen Lutz

OF Carlos D. Rodriguez

OF Joe Gray, Jr

OF Micah Bello

OF Arbert Cipion

OF Je'Von Ward

OF Reidy Mercado

OF Eduarqui Fernandez

OF Oswal Leones

***

LHP Clayton Andrews

RHP JC Mejia

RHP Caleb Boushley

RHP Lucas Erceg

RHP Matt Hardy

RHP Tyler Herb

RHP Marcus Walden

RHP Tobias Myers

RHP Robbie Baker

LHP Nick Bennett

RHP Victor Castaneda

RHP Luis Contreras

RHP Arnaldo Hernandez

RHP Robbie Hitt

RHP Justin Jarvis

RHP Zach Vennaro 

RHP Justin Bullock

RHP Taylor Floyd

RHP Rafael Garcia

RHP Max Lazar

RHP Harold Chirino

RHP Joey Matulovich

LHP Karlos Morales

RHP Israel Puello

RHP Brady Schanuel

RHP Jhoan Cruz

LHP Pablo Garabitos

RHP Juan Geraldo

LHP Jackson Gillis

RHP Michele Vassalotti

RHP Mario Perez

LHP Josh Shapiro

[Mass Haas]

The prior thread on this topic can be found here, which prompted a formal article on our home page here.

[Mass Haas]

And just like that, we add player #63:
 

 

[Joseph Zarr]

I could see someone nabbing Garabitos for the Double-A portion of the draft - assuming he is still rostered in Carolina.

He didn't fare well in his stint with Nashville, but that shouldn't take away from how dominant he was for Carolina. He was an incredibly important piece for Victor Estevez out of the pen. He is a classic lefty finesse pitcher with size and a frame to possibly add some upticks in Velo down the line. His off-speed stuff gave hitters fits near every outing I witnessed.

[CheeseheadInQC]

1 hour ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I could see someone nabbing Garabitos for the Double-A portion of the draft - assuming he is still rostered in Carolina.

He didn't fare well in his stint with Nashville, but that shouldn't take away from how dominant he was for Carolina. He was an incredibly important piece for Victor Estevez out of the pen. He is a classic lefty finesse pitcher with size and a frame to possibly add some upticks in Velo down the line. His off-speed stuff gave hitters fits near every outing I witnessed.

I’d assume the paper minor league rosters right now in no way resemble the posted ones. It wouldn’t surprise me if, because he isn’t eligible, Joey Wiemer is technically a Timber Rattler until after the draft.

There are definitely more guys on that list who seem at least close to roster locks than 38, so theoretically there could be players picked in the AAA phase.  At the same time, though, thanks to the pandemic season and us not yet reaching the point where most of the Latin American signings will get an extra season before being eligible, I am guessing a lot of teams’ lists are similar.

[damuelle]

We never get to see the official 38-man AAA protected list, but here's my guess:

• SP (8): Castaneda, Jarvis, Puello, Boushley, Myers, Lazar, Bennett, Herb
• RP (11): Erceg, Garabitos, Andrews, Floyd, JC Mejia, Vassalotti, Hardy, Morales, Contreras, Geraldo, Schanuel
• C (3): Jackson, Navarreto, Diaz
• INF (10): Devanney, Valerio, E. Garcia, Alvarez, Dillard, Monasterio, Dorrian, Martinez, Chirinos, Jaraba
• OF (6): Rodriguez, Gray, Lutz, Bello, Cipion, Fernandez

Odd men out (from my made-up list), with Gabe Holt being the player I bumped today for newly-signed Eddy Alvarez:

• Pitchers/Hitters who I think will be free agents after this season (9): Chirino, Bullock, A. Hernandez, Hitt, Ward, Baker, Lopez, Sibrian, Walden
• Others (16): Holt, Matulovich, Acosta, Cabrera, Vennaro, Cruz, McGee, Hall, Ferrer, Kahle, Leones, Perez, R. Garcia, Gillis, Mercado, Shapiro

[Joseph Zarr]

Good insights, gents. Very nice. Thank you for sharing.

[Robocaller]

You linked to the wrong Eduardo Garcia. This is ours: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=garcia008edu

This is just a question, not a correction: Are guys who were minor league FAs and get signed to a minor league contract exposed to the rule V draft? There are at least a couple such players; seems like a team would want to sign them after the draft, if they could get picked.

 

[Robocaller]

12 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I could see someone nabbing Garabitos for the Double-A portion of the draft - assuming he is still rostered in Carolina.

Has there been a rule change? I only know two portions of the draft: major league (players not on the 40-man) and minor league (players not on 38-man AAA team). Players selected in the minor league portion can be assigned to any level.

on another subject:

10 hours ago, damuelle said:

We never get to see the official 38-man AAA protected list, but here's my guess:

• SP (8): Castaneda, Jarvis, Puello, Boushley, Myers, Lazar, Bennett, Herb
• RP (11): Erceg, Garabitos, Andrews, Floyd, JC Mejia, Vassalotti, Hardy, Morales, Contreras, Geraldo, Schanuel
• C (3): Jackson, Navarreto, Diaz
• INF (10): Devanney, Valerio, E. Garcia, Alvarez, Dillard, Monasterio, Dorrian, Martinez, Chirinos, Jaraba
• OF (6): Rodriguez, Gray, Lutz, Bello, Cipion, Fernandez

Do we know that we're using the full 38-man roster? We can only draft a player if we have an open space.

 

[Mass Haas]

Thanks for pointing out the Baseball Reference discrepancies. I say it in plural because others have reached out to me as well about their favorite (or family) players.

Brock (owner) has set up the forum to auto-link to B-Ref player pages but I have noticed as well that they can quite often miss the mark. I will point this out but not sure what we can do on that one.

Quite often, depending on the circumstances, I will manually link to the proper MiLB Player Page. With a list of 63, letting the auto-process do it’s thing caused the non-matching.

I just went through the list, there were four incorrect links, manually fixed now.

 

[Mass Haas]

4 hours ago, Robocaller said:

This is just a question, not a correction: Are guys who were minor league FAs and get signed to a minor league contract exposed to the rule V draft? There are at least a couple such players; seems like a team would want to sign them after the draft, if they could get picked.

 

I suppose if a team was hoping to sign Eddy Alvarez as the Brewers just did, for instance, but Alvarez chose to sign with Milwaukee instead, then yeah, it would make sense for both parties to announce the signing after the draft. But we're really grinding the remotest minutia here now.

I bring up his name every year, but sometimes the Brewers will expose a player below the AAA level just to give him an opportunity elsewhere. Eric Farris was taken by Seattle in the December 2012 Minor League Phase of Rule 5. Farris had been on the 40-man for 2012 but was outrighted off that October.

To your other point, if a team's 38-man AAA roster is full, they can't make a minor league phase pick, so teams will often leave a few spots open and only roster maybe 35 at the top level. If an organization loses a player in the Major League Phase, that suddenly opens up a spot to allow for a minor league phase pick. We're digging through the weeds here, but minor league phase picks have been very occasionally productive, rare as it is - Justin Bour carved out a decent career, for instance.

Finally, and several of baseball's finest journalists have fun pointing this out from time to time, but it isn't and never has been "Rule V", it's just "Rule 5". No Super Bowl commonality here.

[CheeseheadInQC]

5 hours ago, Robocaller said:

Has there been a rule change? I only know two portions of the draft: major league (players not on the 40-man) and minor league (players not on 38-man AAA team). Players selected in the minor league portion can be assigned to any level.

 

I had forgotten as well that they eliminated the AA phase (for players that weren’t even protected at the AA level) a few years ago. So you are right, just minor league portion now.

[damuelle]

6 hours ago, Robocaller said:

You linked to the wrong Eduardo Garcia. This is ours: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=garcia008edu

This is just a question, not a correction: Are guys who were minor league FAs and get signed to a minor league contract exposed to the rule V draft? There are at least a couple such players; seems like a team would want to sign them after the draft, if they could get picked.

 

I've no special knowledge on this, but my assumption is that there's no exemption for players who recently signed minor league deals (e.g. Chirino, Alvarez, Monasterio, Sibrian, Herb, Mejia, Myers). Some cash-poor teams and players may even pre-agree how to share the $24,500 which acquiring teams pay to select players in the Minor League phase. Did the Brewers really mind being paid to lose Kekai Rios last year?

Note: As an example, RHP Jon Duplantier signed a minor league deal with the Giants on December 3, 2021 and was then selected by the Dodgers in the Minor League phase 5 days later.

[Joseph Zarr]

11 hours ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

I had forgotten as well that they eliminated the AA phase (for players that weren’t even protected at the AA level) a few years ago. So you are right, just minor league portion now.

Yes @Robocaller, you are absolutely correct and I too am apparently cleaning the rust off after a year or so hiatus of the Rule 5 itself. Thanks for chiming in, amigo.

[MadThinker88]

Just to chime in on the question earlier (about a milb free agent signing & being still eligible for the Rule 5 minor league draft portion): unless there has been a rule change the answer is a definite YES.   I can even site another example for you:  Martin Cervenka in Dec 2017.

Cervenka was a European ballplayer signed & developed by CLE.  He moved thru their system and attained milb free agent status after the 2017 season.  He decided to sign with San Fran and continue in their minor league system.

During the minor league portion of the R5, Baltimore selected him and since it was the minor league phase, there was (and still is) no return to the former club mechanism.  Cervenka continued to play in the Baltimore system during 2018 & 2019.   He moved over to the Mets system in 2021.   IIRC he has retired as he did not play anywhere in 2022 & never reached the major leagues.

[damuelle]

Here's a friendly reminder that the Rule 5 Draft is today at 4:00pm CST.

While most of us are focused on the potential loss of 25-year old SS/3B Cam Devanney (23 HRs in AA/AAA in 2022 - basically coming out of nowhere), MLB.com has highlighted two other Brewer minor leaguers who could be at risk of selection in the MLB phase:

• 24-year old RHP Victor Castaneda (3.97 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 9.3 K/9 in 106 2/3 IP at AA Biloxi in 2022 - most intriguing unprotected player
• 27-year old RHP Lucas Erceg - a former third baseman who converted to full time relief pitching in 2022 (after a rough start to 2022, from May 17th onward he posted a 2.85 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 10.1 K/9 in 47 1/3 IP, predominantly in AAA) - 15 prospects who could get taken

[patrickgpe]

also interesting that former prospect Antoine Kelly has not been protected by the Rangers. I know it was a massive point of contention to move him, but the Rangers were not as high on him as some people on this pagee. 

[patrickgpe]

Its normally a good sign that your team passes in the rule V draft, I think think that is the likest option, but I could see them taking a pass at Kelly at 18 this afternoon. 

[damuelle]

OF/IF Korry Howell (Padres) is another interesting ex-Brewer that could be picked up.

But 1B/3B Malcolm Nunez (Pirates) really jumps out for me. He hit quite well as a 21-year old in AA this year.

[damuelle]

The Brewers have selected Gus Varland, RHP Dodgers, with the 14th pick (10th actual selection, since 4 teams opted to pass) of the Rule 5 Draft.

[damuelle]

That’s it! 15 picks in the MLB phase: 13 pitchers, 2 hitters. Brewers add one, lose none.

[markedman5]

 

[damuelle]

What an opportunity for the 26-year old Varland, from Maplewood, Minnesota (drafted from Concordia University, St. Paul by the A’s in the 14th round in 2018).

He was terrific through his first 18 games (15 starts) in 2018/19 until an injury sidelined him July 1, 2019. 

Traded to the Dodgers in February 2021, he struggled in AA throughout 2021/22, until they moved him to the bullpen full time. 2022 as starter: 8.54 ERA, 7.9 K/9. 2022 as reliever: 4.67 ERA, 12.6 K/9.

To me, from just a superficial review of the numbers, he seems like one of those picks where the team will see what they have over the next 4 months, then make a decision in March to keep or return. Odds of keeping: 20%.

[Robocaller]

22 minutes ago, damuelle said:

What an opportunity for the 26-year old Varland, from Maplewood, Minnesota (drafted from Concordia University, St. Paul by the A’s in the 14th round in 2018).

[snip}

Odds of keeping: 20%.

Not sure what you mean by "keeping." I'd put his chance at making the ML roster would be less that that, but there's the chance they could work out a deal for him (not sure how that works, but that it can).

 

[Robocaller]

27 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Fits our recent type: positional versatility, obp, speed. Did poorly in AA; could do well in a repeat.