Relax The Atlanta Braves Are Ready For Rule 5
By Fred Owens
Roster Clarifications
Everyone knows major league teams have a 40-man active roster; 25 active and 15 reserve. Minor league teams at the AAA and AA level work off of 25-man active rosters as well. Triple A teams have a 13 player reserve(38-man) roster and double A team a 12 player reserve (37-man roster). The rest look like this
- Class A Advanced: California, Carolina, Florida State — 25 active; 35 under control; no more than two players and one player-coach on active list may have six or more years of prior Minor League service.
- Class A: Midwest, South Atlantic — 25 active; 35 under control; no more than two players on active list may have five or more years of prior Minor League service.
- Class A Short-Season: New York-Penn, Northwest — 35 active. No more than three players on the Active List may have four or more years of prior Minor League service.
- Rookie: Appalachian, Pioneer leagues — 35 active. No more than three players on the Active List may have three or more years of prior Minor League service.
- Rookie: Arizona, Gulf Coast leagues — 35 active. No player on the Active List may have three or more years of prior Minor League service.
I point those out because while no minor league draft player must be returned sending a player down is restricted by service time.
Current Roster Size
Updated to correct my faux pas (I screwed up. I’ve read that paragraph a dozen times and that bit didn’t stick in my tiny mind. My apologies for the error.)
The Atlanta Braves 40-man roster is indeed full and under rule 5b(2) a team may not draft unless they have a spot on its Reserve List(s) for the classification covered by the phase of the draft. but that doesn’t stop them from choosing a player in the Rule 5 draft. They have time after the selection to make a decision about who to outright off the 40-man roster in order to add the new player.
If the Braves want to select someone for the major league team during the Rule 5 Draft they will have to outright someone currently on the roster.
Whoever is outrighted off the roster someone projected a member of the 25-man roster has to be moved since the Rule 5 player ends up in that spot for the season.
Why not keep a roster spot open for the draft? A better question is why leave a player unprotected under Rule 5 or hold off signing a player you want because you might get a Rule 5 player? The roster can be adjusted afterwards. (Yep another screw up, sorry.)
As of this morning the Gwinnett Braves have 18 players on their roster. Right now they list:
- Three outfielders
- Four infielders
- Two catchers and
- Nine pitchers
Mississippi have 26, the Fire Frogs have 24 and Rome shows 30. Those numbers will change before the Rule 5 Draft as rosters are adjusted to protect players.
Roster Change Projection (update)
I ask our minor league guru Benjamin Chase about roster changes he could foresee to protect minor League players . Here’s what Ben told me about the rosters.
“I would imagine they bump up Conner Lien, Joseph Odom, Joey Meneses, and perhaps Wes Parsons (to Gwinnett) based on how he finished the year. This would protect them from the AAA portion as I really could only see Lien or Odom being potential MLB picks. I’d be surprised if either were selected.
Moving those players up would open spots at Mississippi. It would make sense to move Carlos Castro up, he the only guy I can see as a possible pick in the AA portion.
Others who might get chosen in that round are Omar Obregon, Luis Valenzuela, Zack Bird (who may not be eligible as he played in AA in 2015), Erison Mendez, or Oriel Caicedo. They all have some potential but are essentially replaceable pieces. ”