Every year the Rule 5 Draft takes place to close out the Winter Meetings. It is a mechanism put into place to prevent teams from holding onto major league-caliber prospects for too long. Teams had to finalize their 40-man roster prior to the draft, adding the eligible players in order to protect them from being taken. The Yankees have a deep farm system, and when there are so many talent players in the mix, a few are likely to fall through the cracks. This year, they lost eight players in total.
In the major league portion of the draft, where players must stay on the active roster of their new team all season long or be offered back, catcher Luis Torrens was drafted by the Reds and traded to the Padres.