Getting the Atlanta Braves Roster Ready For The Rule Five Draft

Rule 55: The Six-Year Minor League Free-Agent

Rule 55 free agents – commonly called or six-year free agents – are, as noted, another special case. Here’s the criteria for Rule 55 free agency.

A player is a Rule 55 free-agent five days after the World Series ends at 5 PM (Eastern) if:

• The player had his first contract renewed six times and has spent all or any part of at least seven separate seasons on a minor league roster and/or
• The player has been previously released or non-tendered in his career and his present contract has expired.

As it relates to this rule a player is not credited with a minor league year if:

• The Player spends the entire season on an MLB Active List, MLB Disabled List(s), and/or other MLB Inactive List, or
• The player spends an entire season on the Restricted List, Disqualified List, Suspended List, Ineligible List, Voluntarily Retired List, and/or Military List.

Taking part in the AZL, or winter league ball doesn’t count as a minor league season.

Got all that? Good there will be a test later…open book. . . So with those things in mind off we go into eligibility.

Lists

Here’s a list of players I believe are Rule 55 free agents and would have to be signed back to be protected.

Aside from Max Fried, players below AA are unlikely Rule 5 claims as they have to be on an active roster all year. Those players can be protected from the later phases through addition to a minor league reserve list.

Below is a list of the players I see as at risk. The table includes midyear prospect rankings from various sources including our list of course.

(Note:The BA and BP midseason lists only rank the their top ten players thus not having a rank in their column doesn’t mean they aren’t prospects just not top ten prospects.)

Several names jump off the list as ranked players whose protect is assured;  Fried, Sims, and Ruiz. Others like Janas, Lien and Dave Peterson are also likely to earn protection and a case can be made for Camargo, Odom and Meneses.

Alan suggested protecting Lipka in an earlier post but he seems in the same category as Cunningham. For that reason I doubt he’s added.

That’s a Wrap

The roster isn’t as jammed up as was once thought. Admittedly determining who is Rule 5 eligible is confused by the Rule 55 free agent issue. I asked the folks at Roster Resource and they indicated they have the same issues so I don’t feel so bad.

Next: GCL Braves End fo Season Report

The roster is also more of a moving target than I expected this far into September. The AJ saga and odd addition of Lalli so late forced a rewrite this morning. He is however a free agent after the year so in the long run it made no difference to the final list.

I polled the writers here for there must save guys and found most were covered in this list. Teams willing to carry an A ball player for a year might grab Bird or Parsons but that’s unlikely. I’m sure you all have opinions; let’s hear them.