Twins Add Seven To Their 40 Man Roster, Lose Achter, Pinto

Gilmartin had a good year in a new role and the Twins could have used his production in 2015, but I doubt he'll be a significant performer going forward. I don't think the Twins would trade either Graham or Pressly for Gilmartin today.

Finally found the rule:

http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3517

See the section at the bottom on "Draft-Excluded Players."

 

 

Draft-Excluded Player

A "Draft-Excluded Player" is any minor league player eligible for selection in the Rule 5 Draft whose contract is selected and who is added to an MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) between August 15th and the Rule 5 Draft.

 

While a "Draft-Excluded Player" can be non-tendered on 12/2 and released or traded at any time, he cannot be sent to the minors by Optional Assignment beginning with the conclusion of the MLB regular season up until 20 days prior to MLB Opening Day. Also, a "Draft-Excluded Player" can be outrighted to the minors only if Outright Assignment Waivers are requested no later than 2 PM (Eastern) on the 4th day following the final game of the World Series, and if a "Draft-Excluded Player" is not outrighted to the minors prior to the Rule 5 Draft, the player cannot be sent outright to the minors any earlier than 20 days prior to the start of the MLB regular season.

Emphasis mine.

Basically, guys added to the 40-man after August 15th who would otherwise be Rule 5 eligible (including the guys added last week) can't be outrighted between Dec. 10 and roughly March 15 next spring.

They can be traded or released at any time, but you can't pass them through waivers and outright them (removing them from the 40-man but keeping them in the organization) during that period.  Which effectively means the player's 40-man spot is secured until March 15 -- if a team needs to free a spot in the interim, they will generally trade or try to waive/outright another player (i.e. what we just tried with Achter and Pinto).

One Twins player made the list of Rule 5 Names to Remember at Baseball America... http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2015-rule-5-draft-preview-names-remember/ 

Thanks, that's a more exhaustive list than the MLB.com Top 10 I posted earlier.

Same Twins name on both lists, though (Zach Jones).

Note that Pat Dean is older than every pitcher on that list except Kyle Drabek (who just signed as a minor league free agent and has over 2.5 seasons MLB service time).

The thing that bugs me about Dean is that he spent his age-26 year at AAA, yet wasn't deemed by the Twins worthy of a September look-see in mopup duty, which would only have cost them the unusable Aaron Thompson being dropped from the 40-man (I think), but now they don't want him snapped up by some other team.

Yes, agreed 100%.  Guys at that age and level, with that track record, should absolutely be expected to have an MLB audition before they spend a whole winter on the 40-man roster.  (Which Thompson himself did in 2014, as well as Oliveros, and Fryer in 2013, etc.)

Likewise, a guy like Gilmartin should probably get that audition too before it is determined that we'd be OK losing him in Rule 5.  Worst case, you see something in the audition that makes you not want to keep him on the roster all winter, and without Rule 5 restrictions you can probably flip him for another marginal player to fill a AAA depth role if that's all you wanted anyway.

I'm not sure I agree with that line of reasoning.  Now you're adding a guy in the fall just to DFA them in the winter.

If you think you might DFA them after a brief MLB audition, perhaps they're not worth protecting on the 40-man all winter without the audition anyway.

A BA list with 46 players that might get drafted in the Rule 5. Zack Jones is the only Twin to make it. I suspect the rest of marginal guys in the org are going to be fine.

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2015-rule-5-draft-preview-names-remember/

Further analysis: last year, BA published a similar list of 77 minor league guys, and still missed two picks (Odubel Herrera, arguably the best pick last year, and David Rollins).

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/notable-players-available-rule-5-draft/

They did feature 10 "most notable" guys at the top of the list, which included 4 eventual picks.

This part of the waiver-claim process needs to change. If you decide to drop the player from your 40-man, within some period of time I'll leave others to define, he should be revert back to the previous team and waivers resume, and the previous team can stash him if he clears this time.

Not sure it's that big of a deal, a player can only be outrighted once without their consent anyway. If it happens to Achter, he will get to elect free agency after 2016 unless he is added back before then, regardless of where he lands on the merry go round.

Also not sure it is good for the player. By the time he would be returned to the Twins, he may be further down the depth chart here than in Philly. And any attempt to disincentive a team from claiming him is bad (and removing the potential for outrighting would do just that). I think Achter would rather stay on a 40-man roster and get those benefits as long as possible, regardless of how many hats he has to wear in the process.

Few openings are ever "genuine" when you are dealing with the quality of players sent through waivers.

Offseason DFAs probably aren't such a big deal, however those in season DFAs we've seen recently, mostly involving Toronto it seems, leave the player in limbo for a week.  When it happens to the guy repeatedly, the guy can lose a month of playing time simply because some clubs are jerking him around. 

But he keeps his MLB salary and benefits that whole time.  Obviously they'd rather just stick on one team's roster, but when that's not an option, I suspect the players prefer the DFA carousel to being outrighted immediately to AAA.

After the Twins waived him in 2013, Alex Burnett managed to get over 2 more months on 40-man rosters, including some days of MLB service too.  Not bad for a guy who was out of affiliated ball a few months later anyway.