Rule 5 draft primer

Friday is the deadline for teams to protect minor leaguers from the Dec. 10 Rule 5 draft by adding them to their 40-man roster. The Rule 5 draft allows teams to add players to their active roster from other minor league organizations if they are not protected. It keeps teams from stashing players in their farm system. The catch is, the drafting team has to keep that player on their 25-man roster all season or offer him back.

If a player was 18 or younger on June 5 the year he signed his first professional contract, teams have five years to evaluate him before they must protect him. If he was 19 or older, they have four. So in general, with some exceptions, high schoolers drafted in 2011 and college players drafted in ’12 are eligible for this year’s Rule 5 draft.

The Rule 5 draft is named for the section of the Professional Baseball Agreement that governs it. It does not often produce impact players, but it has at times – Roberto Clemente, Josh Hamilton, Dan Uggla, Johan Santana, Jose Bautista and Joakim Soria were all Rule 5 guys. The Pirates also had a moment of infamy during the 2003 Rule 5 draft.

Here’s the actual rule:

Teams can select a player for $50,000, but they must keep him on the 25-man active roster or major league disabled list all year. If they don’t, they must put him on waivers and offer him back to his original club, if he clears, for $25,000. If the player does not spend 90 days on the active roster because he is on the DL, he must spend a portion of the following season on the active roster until he reaches 90 days of major league service time. The Pirates lost Wei-Chung Wang to the Brewers in last year’s Rule 5 draft, and he stuck: They used him sparingly until he reached 90 days and they put him on the DL because of a shoulder injury.

There are also minor league portions of the Rule 5 draft, a Class AA portion and a Class AA portion.

Players with positional versatility, speed and good defense are easier to keep on an active roster than, say, a corner infielder, so they are more likely to be selected.

The Pirates are at 34 on their 40-man roster. Here are some they might add.

Sure things: RHP Tyler Glasnow, 1B Josh Bell

Possibles:

3B Dan Gamache. Gamache reached Indianapolis this season and hit .312/.355/.413 between Altoona and Indy in 377 plate appearances. He’s not a power hitter, but he plays all over the infield. He had a strong season last year as well, but this was his best season since the South Atlantic League in 2012.

IF Max Moroff. Moroff was named the Pirates’ minor league player of the year this season, during which he hit .293/.374/.409 with seven homers in 612 plate appearances for Altoona.

OF Barrett Barnes. Shin, back, hamstring and oblique injuries have hampered the 2012 supplemental first-rounder, but he finally put together a full season in 2015 between Bradenton and Altoona. He hit .256/.352/.403 with nine homers and a 66/44 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

C Jacob Stallings. Stallings hit .275/.313/.370 in 292 PAs at Altoona this past season, but threw out 37 percent of base-runners, a career high.

OF Harold Ramirez. Baseball America just ranked Ramirez the Pirates’ No. 5 prospect after he tore up the Florida State League, hitting .337/.399/.458 and stealing 22 bases.

RHP Clay Holmes. He missed all of 2014 because of Tommy John surgery, but made nine starts this past season and had a 2.97 ERA between the rookie-level GCL Pirates and Bradenton.

RHP Luis Heredia. Heredia has not performed nearly as well as the Pirates hoped when they signed him in 2010. But he’s still young.

Best guess: Glasnow, Bell, Ramirez, Moroff, Barnes.

The Pirates could remove some people from their 40-man roster to make more room. Jaff Decker is a candidate, especially because of the addition of Keon Broxton. So is Pedro Florimon. They could also work out a trade, possibly with one of the arbitration big three – Pedro Alvarez, Mark Melancon and Neil Walker – although between now and Friday is a tight turnaround.

A note on how I compiled the list: Using the rosters listed on the Web sites of the Pirates’ minor league affiliates, I checked every player’s service time and signing/drafting date. I also trimmed last year’s list, compiled in the same fashion, to include only players still with the organization. I checked as best I could to make sure the players are still with the organization (rosters sometimes list players who haven’t played for the Pirates in affiliated ball for two years, for example). I also excluded the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and the Dominican Summer League teams because of the low number of eligible players and the lack of impact of those that are eligible. So this isn’t every single person who is eligible, but it should have everyone who matters.

Class AAA Indianapolis

RHP Tyler Glasnow

RHP Casey Sadler

RHP Brandon Cumpton

RHP Angel Sanchez

RHP Jake Thompson

1B Josh Bell

INF Kelson Brown

3B Dan Gamache

RHP Matt Benedict

Class AA Altoona

1B Stetson Allie

RHP Tyler Sample

OF Mel Rojas Jr.

RHP Jason Creasy

LHP Tom Harlan

RHP John Kuchno

RHP Jhondaniel Medina

LHP Josh Smith

C Jacob Stallings

IF Max Moroff

1B Jose Osuna

3B Eric Wood

OF Barrett Barnes

C/OF Jonathan Schwind

Class A Bradenton

LHP Rinku Singh

RHP Oderman Rocha

C Kawika Emsley-Pai

RHP Luis Heredia

RHP Clay Holmes

RHP Dovydas Neverauskas

LHP Andy Otamendi

RHP Isaac Sanchez

C Jin-De Jhang

3B Chris Diaz

1B Edwin Espinal

OF Harold Ramirez

Low-A West Virginia

LHP Jared Lakind

RHP Colten Brewer

RHP Jake Burnette

LHP Jesus Paredes

RHP Jose Regalado

RHP Julio Vivas

OF Elvis Escobar

Short-season West Virginia

C Deybi Garcia

LHP Cesilio Pimentel

3B Daniel Arribas

1B Carlos Munoz

OF Maximo Rivera