Cleveland Indians: At Risk of Losing Players to Rule 5 Draft?

Could the Cleveland Indians be at risk for losing any unprotected players in the Rule 5 Draft?

The Cleveland Indians recently made some changes to their 40-man roster, adding a trio of players ahead of the Rule 5 Draft Roster deadline. Interesting though was that only one of the three players added, Francisco Mejia, was already a member of the Cleveland Indians organization. The other two, Tim Cooney and Edwin Escobar, were claimed off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks, respectively.

This means the Indians have left a couple of Rule 5 Draft eligible players exposed to the draft. The question is, are any of these players at risk to be taken in the draft? Or did the Indians make the right call rostering just Mejia?

In years past, the Cleveland Indians have typically rostered around four or five players ahead of the Major League Baseball Rule 5 Draft. In fact, in each of the previous two years, they added five players, including the likes of Tyler Naquin, Mike Clevinger, Cody Anderson, and Ryan Merritt among others. This year though was a relatively weak Rule 5 Draft class for the Indians.

So while I did expect a couple more to be added, it was not a huge surprise to see only Mejia protected. That doesn’t mean no one will be taken when the Rule 5 Draft takes place on December 8.

The first player that will likely jump out at fans is Nellie Rodriguez. The right-handed slugger hit 26 home runs for Double-A Akron last year and drove in 85 runs for the third straight season. Rodriguez continues to be one of the better power threats in the Tribe’s system.

He also improved his walk rate again, raising it to 13 percent. All of this would bode well for a guy to get taken in the draft. However, Rodriguez is strictly a first baseman and lacks versatility that teams look for. He also struck out 32 percent of the time in 2016, raising serious questions about how his bat will play at the next level.