Andrew Friedman left the Tampa Bay Rays in October to become the president of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He executed a trade with his former team on Thursday night. Also, the league's top prospects were added to MLB rosters for protection from the Rule 5 Draft.
Earlier this month the Rays picked up reliever Joel Peralta's $2.5 million option for 2015 after it was speculated the team was going to decline a number of options to reduce their payroll. Well they likely knew Peralta would have some trade value if they took him back, and they were right. The 38-year-old right-hander was traded to the Dodgers for young pitchers Jose Dominguez and Greg Harris.
Although Peralta posted a 4.41 ERA in 2014, he owned a 74/15 strikeout to walk ratio in 63 1/3 innings of work. He was Tampa Bay's setup man last season and was expected to assume the same role in 2014, but now he'll compete for the same job in Los Angeles with Brian Wilson to work behind closer Kenley Jansen. Peralta owns a career 3.92 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with 555 strikeouts in 591 2/3 innings. The Rays also sent prospect Adam Liberatore, a left-handed pitcher, to the Dodgers.
But yesterday was a big day for the entire MLB. Each team had to decide which prospects they would be adding to their 40-man roster by 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday in order to have them avoid December's Rule 5 Draft. This draft takes place during the winter meetings and aims to prevent teams from stockpiling players in the minor leagues. Players who are not on an MLB team's 40-man roster are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, meaning they can be selected by another team (the draft order goes from worst record to best record in the previous season), but must be kept on that team's 25-man roster for the entire season after the draft or else they return to their original team. (There is money involved but we're only detailing the basics.)
There are two requirements for such players to be eligible for the December 11 draft: (1) they were 18 years old or younger on the June 5 prior to their signing and have played at least four minor league seasons or (2) they were 19 years old or older on the June 5 prior to their signing and have played at least three minor league seasons.
Here are some notable young prospects in the top 100 that were added to their MLB team's 40-man roster to be protected from the draft:
No. 7 ranked prospect Miguel Sano, 3B, Minnesota Twins
No. 10 ranked prospect Noah Syndergaard, RHP, New York Mets
No. 24 ranked prospect Blake Swihart, C, Boston Red Sox
No. 27 ranked prospect Alex Meyer, RHP, Minnesota Twins
No. 28 ranked prospect Jameson Taillon, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
No. 30 ranked prospect Jorge Alfaro, C, Texas Rangers
No. 52 ranked prospect Jose Peraza, 2B/SS, Atlanta Braves
No. 53 ranked prospect C.J. Edwards, RHP, Chicago Cubs
No. 56 ranked prospect A.J. Cole, RHP, Washington Nationals
No. 58 ranked prospect Nick Kingham, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
No. 70 ranked prospect Luke Jackson, RHP, Texas Rangers
No. 92 ranked prospect Michael Feliz, RHP, Houston Astros
For the complete list of protected prospects, check out this MLB.com article.
