New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

For New Ulm’s Jamie Hoffmann, next week has lots of questions regarding where he will play baseball in the 2010 season. A number of dates have been quoted in these columns and by other news sources but our checks indicate the draft will be held Thursday, December 10. The draft is always in December during the meeting of baseball’s general managers.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia explains, “ The Rule 5 draft aims to prevent teams from stockpiling too many young players on their minor league affiliate teams when other teams would be willing to have them play in the majors. The Rule 5 Draft is named for its place in the The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book. The June Rule 4 draft, known as simply "the draft" or the "amateur draft", is a distinctly different process in which teams select high school and college players.”

According to another article from Major League Baseball’s website, the order for the draft Dec. 10 was listed as well as a notation where each team stands with its 40-man roster. A team must have fewer than 40 to make a selection in the Major League phase of the Draft. There is also a minor league phase involved. There was a deadline for pre-Rule 5 transactions but we haven’t seen any more on that situation.
The top 10 in the order were Washington, Pittsburg, Baltimore, Kansas city, Cleveland, Arizona, New York Mets,( 36) J Houston (37), San Diego (39) and Oakland (39). Those shown without numbers have 40-man rosters. The Minnesota Twins are 20th with a 40-man roster. If a team has a 40-man roster (such as the Dodgers had when they took Hoffmann from that list they are unable to draft.

Hoffmann could go back to a free agent status if he isn’t selected or stay with the Dodgers. If he is selected, he must be kept on the selecting team’s 25-man major league roster for the entire season for 2010 and may not be optioned or designated to the minors.

However according to Wikipedia players could be waived and if not signed by a new MLB team, must be offered back to the original team. Once a Rule 5 draftee spends an entire season on his new team’s 25-man roster, his status reverts to normal and he may be option or designated for assignment.
There are other restrictions to further complicate the waiting period for Hoffmann but he could be back in spring training with the Dodger organization, could be on another major league roster for 2010 or even, if we understand all this stuff right, he could be a free agent minor leaguer. Hoffmann, incidentally, is listed as one of a few players currently on the roster of the Albuquerque Isotopes in Triple A ball.

Teams are not talking big dollars of initial expense no matter what. Wikipedia reports each draftee costs $50,000 but if he doesn’t stay on the selecting teams 25-man roster all season, the player must be offered back to his original team at half price. Organizations may also draft players from AA or lower to play for their AAA affiliates (for $12,000) and may draft players from A teams or lower to play for their AA affiliates (for $4,000).

Johan Santana, was a prominent example of a big name coming being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He was chosen in the 1999 Rule 5 draft by the Florida Marlins when the Houston Astros declined to put him on their 40-man roster. After the Marlins traded Santana to the Minnesota Twins for minor leaguer Jared Camp, the Twins kept him on their roster for the 2000 season, despite the pitcher's sub-par performance that season (6.49 earned run average) which was unsurprising given his youth and inexperience.

After Santana was kept on in the major leagues for all of the 2000 season, the Twins subsequently optioned him to their minor league system. By 2002, the more fully developed Santana had returned to the major leagues and established himself as an above-average pitcher.