With the deadline to add prospects to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft has passed, it is now time to analyze who has been exposed and may be playing in new organizations in 2020. In terms of the Mets, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America notes the Mets are in danger of losing Patrick Mazeika and Shervyen Newton.

In Cooper’s analysis, he brought the categories down to “Ten Who Could Help in 2020” and “Five Players Purely To Stash For The Future.” Mazeika was in the former, and Newton was in the former.

Cooper noted Mazeika “maintains a reasonable strikeout rate and is an adequate defender.” In addition to that, Mazeika is a left-handed hitter who has shown some pop. To that end, last year, he had a 118 wRC+ and .182 ISO in the Eastern League. While he has been a good hitter showing improvement as a defender, Cooper does note there are not many success stories for catchers in the Rule 5 Draft.

What changes the dynamic this year is the addition of the 26th man on the roster. This would allow a team who would normally return Mazeika to keep him as a third catcher with that extra roster spot. It would also make it easier to draft a player clearly not ready for the Majors and stash him.

An example of that type of player is Newton. There are a number of red flags with him including his struggles with Columbia and his strikeout rate. Still, Cooper notes Newton “has a major league body and plus-plus raw power.” That could be enough to entice a team to draft him, especially a team who has no delusions of competing in 2020.

Losing either Mazeika or Newton would be a hit to the Mets farm system. The same could be said for other Rule 5 eligible players like Matt Blackham, Luis Carpio, Harol Gonzalez, and Ryder Ryan. However, the way the system is designed the Mets can only protect so many players leaving them to just hope these players will either go undrafted, or in the event they are drafted, returned to the organization.