Examining the potential Triple-A Reserve List for the Pittsburgh Pirates

Taking a look at who the Pirates might protect from the minor league phase of the Rule 5

Photo Credit: WTM

In an offseason as slow as Major League Baseball’s, there’s nothing like a transaction deadline.

This past Tuesday was the date to file reserve lists with the Commissioner’s Office. In true Pittsburgh Pirates fashion, the team held off an announcement more than fifteen minutes after the 6 o’clock deadline.

When the statement was finally made, pitcher Braxton Ashcraft and infielder Tsung-Che Chang were afforded spots on the 40-man roster, with no need for corresponding transactions due to there being enough room on the roster for both players. While the Major League Reserve List is at 39, I want to focus on the Triple-A Reserve List today.

Morning Rundown: Pirates add two to 40-man roster

The wording I used above was intentional—reserve lists, plural. Tuesday was the deadline to file both the Major and Minor League Reserve Lists, and according to the rules, the Triple-A Reserve List can have up to 38 players “through the conclusion of the Major League Rule 5 Draft”. This allows clubs the opportunity, on some level, to protect up to 78 players.

While some of the marquee names were left off the 40-man roster and thus available in the Rule 5 Draft, there’s a reason they aren’t plucked in the minor league phase, and this is why. The restrictions on this phase are far less onerous—a mere $24,000 (again, this was before, as we STILL DON’T HAVE UPDATED RULES) will grant the selecting team the rights to the player’s contract, with no roster restrictions like those that come with the major league phase.

So, with the basics covered in the draft, who may the Pirates be looking to protect?

The same pool of players that are Rule 5 eligible would be the ones being considered—there aren’t different players eligible for both phases. Also, there seems to be some confusion among fans that we are simply to look at the Triple-A roster, but this is not the case. Any player at any level can be added to the Triple-A Reserve List through the completion of the draft.

Based on my handy-dandy guide, here’s some speculation on who could make up the Triple-A Reserve List. I really won’t include much analysis here—leave that to the rest of the crew—instead, I just wanted to take the opportunity to explain an oft-disregarded rule and look at some deeper names in the system.

In the past, I’ve assumed a full slate; however, the Pirates notoriously only had a list of 32 players last year—for reasons I won’t delve into here—leaving players unprotected and subsequently losing 11 via the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. Considering this, I thought I would try to be more realistic, cutting down my projection into that range.

First, I’ll start with the obvious names (4):

Jase Bowen

Matt Gorski

Malcom Nuñez

Joe Perez

These are the players that some could have argued needed protecting on the 40-man roster. So, it would be silly to leave these players unprotected, as teams would jump at the chance to select them for nothing.

Next, here are some upper-level depth names that could either see the majors this year, fill out the upper levels, or have a future in the organization of some kind (10):

Cam Alldred

Andres Alvarez

Carter Bins

J.C. Flowers

Matt Fraizer

Abrahan Gutierrez

Valentin Linarez

Connor Scott

Aaron Shackelford

Aaron Shortridge

Finally, here are some lower-level—players who ended the season at High-A or lower—projects that I would think the team has hopes for long-term, meaning they wouldn’t want to allow another team to poach and develop them (19):

Omar Alfonzo

Sergio Campana

Jesus Castillo

Maikol Escotto

Ewry Espinal

Adrian Florencio

Ryan Harbin

Hudson Head

Carlos Jimenez

Deivis Nadal

Rodolfo Nolasco

Luis Peralta

Geovanny Planchart

Javier Rivas

Sammy Siani

Joaquin Tejada

Enmanuel Terrero

Jeral Toledo

Eddy Yean

To finish out, seeing as I didn’t go the whole way to 38, I thought I would list some players who could also find their way onto the list, but I just wasn’t totally sold on including them in the final list:

Omar Cruz

Geronimo Franzua

Cameron Junker

Will Kobos

Dariel Lopez

Brennan Malone

Will Matthiessen

Alexander Mojica

Of the 74 players (less than last year’s 89) that are Rule 5 eligible, this leaves 41 available for selection.

While it’s possible we may get an idea of who was available based on if anyone gets picked, it’s probably one of those things that we’ll never know who was or wasn’t protected. It’s still something that needs to be considered as the offseason moves along—until we meet again at the next deadline.