With major league baseball’s 40-man roster deadline now past, scouting departments from all 30 MLB teams must now begin the task of sifting through the rosters of every one of the 240 minor league baseball (MiLB) teams trying to find that one guy, that one potential golden nugget whose parent team left them unprotected from the upcoming December 11 Rule 5 Draft. Not an easy task, to say the very least – especially when that one guy, that one potential golden nugget might not even exists.

But he probably does. In fact, there might even be several of them out there.

How so?

Because just as they do for the annual MLB First Year Player Draft held in June every year, teams have a list, sometimes a long list of guys that they are interested in acquiring via the Rule 5 Draft, and not all of these guys get put onto their parent organization’s 40-man roster, thus making them available to be snatched up in the Rule 5 Draft.

Realistically, the best Rule 5-eligible prospects within each organization do get protected by being placed onto their team’s 40-man rosters, but not all of them do – and the reason is simple. If there are no available spots on the roster, teams must either let somebody go to make room for them, or they must hope and pray that the prospect that they want to keep somehow slides under the radar of the 29 other MLB teams and doesn’t get selected in the Rule 5 Draft – an extremely risky proposition at best.

One need look no further than the 1954 Rule 5 Draft to see what can happen when this ‘sliding under the radar’ thing fails. That winter, the Dodgers tried to sneak an extremely talented young outfielder past the (then) 15 other MLB teams. They’d have been better off trying to sneak a pork chop past a hungry wolf. It didn’t work and Roberto Clemente became a Pittsburgh Pirate, where he would spend every one of his 18 MLB seasons en route to the sacred Halls of Cooperstown.

If the Dodgers had one do-over in their 132-year history, it would be have been protecting Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente from the 1954 Rule 5 Draft.
(AP Photo)

In most cases these potential golden nuggets weren’t first or even second round draft picks. In fact, one of the better recent Rule 5 grabs was Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, who was a 20th-round draft pick in 2000 by those same Roberto Clemente-stealing Pittsburgh Pirates. There are a few exceptions, of course – most notably former Texas Ranger and current Anaheim Angel Josh Hamilton, who was the number one overall pick in the 1999 First Year Player Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Hamilton (and his demons) was grabbed by the Chicago Cubs in the 2006 Rule 5 Draft and immediately sold to the Cincinnati Reds that same day. One year later Hamilton would be traded to the Rangers where he would enjoy the best (and the worst) days of his career and of his life.

With a brand new player development staff from the top down, the Dodgers have a plethora of young scouting talent – many of whom came from scouting staffs from several different MLB teams. This certainly gives the Dodgers a distinct advantage (or at least a perceived advantage) over almost every other MLB team with the 2014 Rule 5 Draft only 20 days away. It’s hard to believe that several of the Dodgers new player development people weren’t in some way involved in the drafting of some of these kids while with their former teams. As such, and even if these kids were drafted in the later rounds, you have to believe that some of the Dodgers new player development folks have a pretty good idea of which kids have the highest potential and worthy of consideration as a possible Rule 5 Draft pick.

Dodgers new Director of Player Development Gabe Kapler.
(Image courtesy of espn.go.com)

There is, of course, a trade-off when selecting a Rule 5 Draft pick – the Dodgers themselves would have to open up a spot for him on their own 40-man roster. They must also carry their new Rule 5 Draftee on their 25-man roster for an entire season as well (or offer him back to the team from whom they drafted him). And while there are always creative ways to make room for a guy on the 40-man roster (placing guys on the DL or designating them for assignment), it is extremely difficult to manufacture a spot on the 25-man active roster. In other words, that Rule 5 Draftee better be exceptionally good; but then, if they were, they probably wouldn’t have been left unprotected in the first place, right?

Needless to say, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Dodgers new brain trust does at the Rule 5 Draft on December 11 in San Diego – if they do anything at all, that is.

Stay tuned…