Minor League Podcast: Talking Rule 5 picks and the suddenly shrinking roster at Double-A

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Dan Duquette’s love for the Rule 5 draft is often joked about – sometimes bitterly – in Orioles’ circles.

The bottom line, though, is that the Rule 5 is an inexpensive way to build depth. And the club has had some success, at least from a depth standpoint, over the years in snagging Ryan Flaherty, T.J. McFarland and Joey Rickard.

On Thursday, with all the Manny Machado rumors swirling, Duquette swerved in another direction and selected three Rule 5 pitchers: left-hander Nestor Cortes and right-handers Pedro Araujo and Jose Mesa Jr.

The Orioles were the only club that took three players in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft. Heck, only the Miami Marlins selected two.

The organization was then ravaged in the Triple-A phase of the draft, losing six players to other teams – mostly guys who would have played at Double-A Bowie in 2018, such as catcher Yermin Mercedes (pictured above).

So, who better to discuss the impact of what transpired Thursday than Adam Pohl, the voice of the Baysox, and Dean Jones Jr., the minor league writer for BaltimoreBaseball.com?

They talk about the Orioles selections – incidentally, I’ve spoken to several people who think Cortes legitimately could be at the back of the 2018 rotation – and also what the draft meant to the organization’s depth, at Bowie and elsewhere.

This is mainly a minor leaguer podcast, but the three Rule 5 guys – and last year’s selection, outfielder Anthony Santander – have something to prove in big league camp this spring. They’ll definitely be worth watching for fans of the big league team.

So, tune in and listen to what Pohl and Jones have to say.

Dan Connolly

Dan Connolly has spent more than two decades as a print journalist in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Baltimore native and Calvert Hall graduate first covered the Orioles as a beat writer for the York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record in 2001 before becoming The Baltimore Sun’s national baseball writer/Orioles reporter in 2005. He has won multiple state and national writing awards, including several from the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013 he was named Maryland Co-Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. And in 2015, he authored his first book, "100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." He lives in York, with his wife, Karen, and three children, Alex, Annie, and Grace.

View Comments

Churchton says:

December 16, 2017 at 11:57 pm

Haha. Three players wow. Duquette has to do something right cause everything else he does you wish he did go to the blue jays. He is the biggest reason the O’s are declining ning and have no pitching