Photo by Ed Delany, MMN

As reported by JJ Cooper of Baseball America, the MLB Portion of the Rule 5 Draft will be postponed indefinitely because of the lockout. While that is postponed, the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft will occur as scheduled on December 8 at 2:00 P.M.

As noted by Jacob Resnick of SNY, there are currently 58 Mets minor leaguers available through minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. Resnick does denote there is a 38 man reserve protected list which is not yet made public. Some notable names available for the draft, and who may also be protected, include INF/OF Carlos Cortes, RHP Tony Dibrell, RHP Harol Gonzalez, RHP Brian Metoyer, C Nick Meyer, INF Shervyen Newton, and C Hayden Senger.

As is the case with Cortes, Meyoyer, and Senger, they are some of the more prominent names available in the Major League portion of the Rule 5 Draft. This would be a very good indication they would be among the 38 players the Mets will protect. Of course, we do not know if they will be selected in the Major League portion of the draft whenever that will occur.

It may very well be the chances of each of these players being drafted may be very well tied to when the draft takes place. There is also the odd chance that there will be changes to the draft both this year and beyond. Naturally, that will come as a result of the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations.