The Rule 5 draft took place at 9.a.m ET as this year’s Winter Meetings and there a few notable New York Yankees’ prospects on the way out.
The Rule 5 draft has come to a close, and the New York Yankees have a few notable pieces packing their backs for another team.
The draft includes players that aren’t on their teams’ 40 man rosters five years after for players who signed at age 18 and four years after for players who signed at age 19. The teams that draft players must pay $50k to the player’s initial team.
New York lost catcher Luis Torrens to the Padres, RHP Tyler Jones to the Diamondbacks, LHP Caleb Smith to the Brewers and LHP Tyler Webb to the Pirates.
In the Triple-A phase, Ty Hensley was taken by the Rays, Kevin Magallanes was taken by the Royals and Kevin Cornelius was taken by the Cubs.
Torrens, Webb and Hensley were arguably the most notable departures.
The 20-year old Torrens is currently ranked as baseball’s 9th best catcher and had a 41 percent caught stealing percentage through his first two years in professional ball.
The native of Venezuela slashed .250/.342/.344 with 201 total bases in 161 games within the Yankees’ organization.
Selected in the tenth round of the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft by the Yankees, Webb went 4-3 with a 3.59 ERA in 36 games (five starts) with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a year ago.
The 23-year-old Hensley was taken in the first round of the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft and owned an 11.5 strikeout per nine innings ratio across rookie ball and Staten Island.
Perhaps the most notable non-pick has to be their 24th ranked prospect, outfielder Jake Cave.
In Trenton and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a year ago, Cave slashed .268/.330/.427 with eight home runs in 116 games. Packed with solid speed and average arm strength, Cave is capable of playing all three outfield positions yet has found a home in left.
New York was able to get a few back, also. They picked catcher Jorge Saez from Toronto and right-handed pitcher Colten Brewer from the Pirates in the second round of the minor league phase.
Saez is 26-years old and has been in the Blue Jays’ organization since 2012 while sporting a career .234 batting average over 296 minor league games.
In 2016, he split time between High-A Dunedin and Double-A New Hampshire where the righty catcher slashed .260/.314/.495 with 12 home runs in 58 games.
Brewer has spent five years in Pittsburgh’s system after being drafted in the fourth round of the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft.
In 51 games (44 starts), the righty owns an 11-15 record to coincide with a displeasing 4.38 ERA. Brewer missed the entire 2014 season due to various back and leg injuries and was placed on the temporarily inactive list by the Pirates in June of 2016.
The 22-year old’s fastball maxes out at 96 m.p.h. while Baseball Prospectus declares his fastball command is currently well below average.
Overall, the Yankees lost seven prospects — which goes to show the downside of having such a deep system — and gained two which brings a close to this year’s Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Md.
