Update: The Mets added Steven Matz, Jeff Walters, Jake deGrom and Erik Goeddel to the 40-man roster. Kolarek, Dykstra and Gorski are at risk of being selected by another team. We’ll see…
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At midnight last night, every team in the MLB were required to have their 40-man roster set, positioning themselves for next month’s Rule 5 draft.
Players 18-and-under who signed their first professional contract in 2009 and players 19-and-over who signed their first professional contract in 2010 are eligible for the draft. This means that we are likely to find many high school and international players who signed in 2009 or before and college players who signed in 2010 or before filling this years’ draft class.The Rule 5 draft will take place on Thursday, December 12.
With 36 men on the roster prior to yesterday’s deadline, the Mets had a fair amount of room for movement. The only “extremely likely protections” were pitchers Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz. In addition, Baseball America named outfielders Cory Vaughn, Darrell Ceciliani and RHP Jeff Walters as “possible protections.”
DeGrom will probably be ready to help the Mets in some role in 2014. Matz is a tougher decision, as the oft-injured 2009 second-rounder hasn’t made it out of low Class A, but he showed plus stuff and some feel for pitching.
Outfielders Vaughn and Cecilliani don’t have the profile of a typical Rule 5 pick, so the Mets could likely gamble and leave them unprotected.
Joe D. shared his thoughts on Tuesday, and believed the Mets were in great shape heading into decision day.
With four spots currently open, that’s just enough to protect Steven Matz, Jeff Walters and Jacob deGrom with room to spare. They could also cut Omar Quintanilla and Scott Atchison to open up two more spots.
I’d like to see the Mets use those additional spots to protect Allan Dykstra, Darin Gorski and Adam Kolarek.
The likelihood of any of the other unprotected players lasting on an MLB roster for an entire year are slim to none, so they should all survive the purging. Those players include:
Triple-A Las Vegas 51s
Hamilton Bennett
Eric Campbell
John Church
Reese Havens
Rylan Sandoval
Chris Schwinden
Double-A Binghamton Mets
Joe Bonfe
Darrell Ceciliani
Mark Cohoon
Blake Forsythe
Ryan Fraser
Jim Fuller
Erik Goeddel
Chase Huchingson
Greg Peavey
Cory Vaughn
Thoughts from David C.
I was very happy to see that the Mets added these prospects to the 40-man roster. I feel Matz has a good future ahead of him and I didn’t want the Mets to take a chance of losing him. I was shocked to see Goeddel protected, but very happy they did, and hopefully they do not lose Dykstra. But I guess that is the risk since they are not able to protect all of their talented prospects. Looking forward to the Rule 5 draft and seeing which prospects survive. Hopefully we don’t lose anyone, but highly likely we will.