Mets 2022 Eligible Rule 5 Draft Players

 

Now that the Minor League Free Agents have been announced, we can focus on the list of  Rule 5 eligible players.

The 2022 Rule 5 Draft is Wednesday December 7th at the Winter Meetings in San Diego.  Teams had until November 15th, to add players to their 40 Man Roster or they leave them unprotected for the Rule 5 Draft - the Mets decided to not add any players to the Roster this year.

Per MLB.com: "Players first signed at age 18 must be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 process. Players signed at 19 years or older have to be protected within four seasons. Clubs pay $100,000 to select a player in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. If that player doesn't stay on the 25-man roster for the full season, he must be offered back to his former team for $50,000."

There are two portions, the Major League portion and the Minor League portion.  In the Major League portion, each Major League team gets one pick from the pool of unprotected players.  Teams can place players on their AAA Roster to exempt them from the Minor League portion.  Once selected, those players do not need to be retained on a team's MLB roster.  

Dodger Blue: "Teams with a full 38-man Triple-A roster are not permitted to make any picks. Each player taken in the Minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft requires a $24,500 payment to be made to the original team."

MLB.com recently noted these ranked Mets prospects that need to be protected.  Junior Santos, RHP (No. 16); Jordany Ventura, RHP (No. 20); Stanley Consuegra, OF (No. 23); Javier Atencio, LHP (No. 29).

MLB.com also noted this- Toughest decisions for each team ahead of Rule 5 Draft. "Jordany Ventura, RHP (No. 20 Mets Prospect) On stuff alone, the 22-year-old righty is someone you’d want to keep around. He flashes decent velocity at 93-95 mph, and his mid-80s changeup got a healthy amount of whiffs this season at Single-A St. Lucie. Unfortunately, however, he’s managed 8 2/3 innings since 2019 due to the pandemic (2020), Tommy John surgery (2021) and a pectoral strain (2022). Rule 5 teams have done weird things in the past by selecting oft-injured pitchers and stashing them for a year, and that could be a strategy here, should the Mets leave him unprotected."

While all the players they mentioned are solid prospects, they didn't mention two players who I thinught the Mets should have considered protecting: OF Jake Mangum and LHP Josh Walker.

Jake Mangum missed considerable time last year with a back injury that turned out not as bad as first thought.  He was able to return at the end of August and for Syracuse he slashed .333/.365/.471 in 33 games while playing great defense and all out hustle.  For Video Highlights and more Jake Mangum Stats click here.  

With Jake's hustle and defense, someone is going to take him and with the Mets potentially losing Brandon Nimmo to Free Agency, this could end up hurting the Mets.  

Mets.com: Mets leave prospect exposed to Rule 5 Draft. Outfielder Jake Mangum limited to 72 games this year due to spinal injury. "He is considered old for a prospect at 26 years old and does not rank among MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Mets prospects. But he is widely considered one of the organization’s best defensive players at any position, which could entice rival teams."

Josh Walker also missed a considerable amount of time to injury in 2022.  

As I stated yesterday in my final report on the Arizona Fall League: "[Josh] did not appear until July 30th making 4 rehab appearances for the FCL and St. Lucie Mets with a call-up to Syracuse on August 17th...A Starting Pitcher for the Mets in 2021, I was thinking that Josh was simply building up innings in the AFL.  However, the AFL Game Notes stated that he had transitioned to a relief pitcher.  In the AFL Josh went 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA, 8 games, 9.1 innings, 14 Ks"  

With the shortage of MLB Ready Lefty Pitchers in the Majors and on the Mets Roster, I felt that Josh would be very attractive to an MLB club and should have been protected.

Next year this list could get even trickier when recent Florida State League MVP Omar De Los Santos and top 10 Mets Prospect Matt Allan join the list of eligible Rule 5 players. 

Here is the full list of eligible players.  Note: It is possible a few of the players included may still become Minor League Free Agents.  Also, any Minor League Free Agents that the Mets sign after November 15th will also be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft.

Pitchers:

Daison Acosta; Miguel Alfonseca; Jace Beck; Jose Chacin; Trey Cobb; Jeffrey Colon; Joshua Cornielly; Tony Dibrell; Benito Garcia; Cole Gordon; Brendan Hardy; Josh Hejka; Brian Metoyer; Troy Miller; Luis Moreno; Dedniel Núñez; Hunter Parsons; Marcel Rentería; Oscar Rojas; Junior Santos; Joander Suarez; Alex Valverde; Jordany Ventura; JoshWalker; Kyle Wilson; Recently signed minor league free agents - Zach Muckenhirn, Denyi Reyes, Jimmy Yacabonis, Tommy Hunter, and Sean Reid-Foley.

Catchers: 

Juan Loyo; Nick Meyer; Matt O'Neill; Jake Ortega; Hayden Senger;

Infielders: 

Cesar Berbesi; Carlos Cortes; Branden Fryman; Nic Gaddis; William Lugo; Jaylen Palmer; Jose Peroza; Luke Ritter; Jeremy Vasquez;

Outfielders: 

Zach Ashford; Stanley Consuegra; Carlos Dominguez; Jake Mangum; Tanner Murphy; Scott Ota; Eduardo Salazar; Warren Saunders; Matt Winaker;