The Rule 5 draft is coming up today at 11 am today, and with the White Sox 40-man roster at 39, they can now make a selection in the major league portion of the draft. Before we get started, let's get reacquainted with what larry wrote last year.
A quick reminder of the rules: A player picked in the MLB phase of the Rule 5 draft must remain on the club’s 40-man roster for the entire 2014 season (including 90 days on the active roster in case of injury) and cannot be optioned to the minors or the team he was picked from gets a chance to reacquire the player (assuming he clears waivers). The cost is extremely minimal - the selecting club pays $50,000 to get the player.
Historically, pitchers are the most-picked players and also have the best chance to stick with a team the entire season, given that they can be stashed in the bullpen and used infrequently. Since the rule changed regarding roster protection in 2006, 88 of the 121 players picked have been pitchers. Of the 38 players who have stuck in the big leagues in the year after they were picked, 28 were pitchers.
With the White Sox picking seventh, there might not be much of interest left and with the possibility of more moves, they might not even make a pick in the major league portion. There are a few names that might be of interest to the Sox, as mentioned on MiLB.com, include OF Delino DeShields Jr, RHP Cody Martin, LHP Sean Gilmartin, RHP Edgar De La Rosa, OF Henry Ramos, and LHP Jarlin Garcia. Then again, Adrian Nieto wasn't mentioned in any of the previews last season so it's really hard to say what might happen.
The major league portion of the draft will be live on MLB.com and probably will last about ten minutes.
There is also a AAA and AA portion of the draft as well. MLB teams keep additional rosters of 38 and 37 players for AAA and AA respectively. So, anyone picked in the AAA portion are not part of the top 78 players in an organization if that many Rule 5 eligible guys are in the organization, so the chances of getting even a fringy prospect is very minimal. These players aren't required to be assigned to a particular roster after drafted (the White Sox drafted catcher Omar Narvaez last season in the AAA portion and he split time between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem last season) meaning there is no return provision. There is also a much lower drafting fee of $12,000 for AAA and $4,000 for AA.