More thoughts (and names) for the 2020 Rule 5 Draft

Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty ImagesAs the Braves have plunged headlong into contention, they haven’t needed the Rule 5 Draft to bolster their roster. There’s nothing strange about this, no one really needs the Rule 5 Draft. I wrote a lot more about this a couple of years ago here, and not much has changed. The Rule 5 Draft is not a meaningful avenue of player acquisition, for two built-in reasons: 1) the requirement to carry a player on the roster for a full year is far too onerous for today’s constantly reshuffled rosters; and 2) there’s at least some degree of parity in league talent distribution (at least for teams that are trying), which makes it hard for one team to run out of roster spots while another has tons. The Rule 5 Draft was originally envisioned as a sop to both the players and less competitive organizations, letting them pluck prospects from teams without room for them — these days, it mostly exists as a curiosity when not much is happening. See that post above — in the 2010s, it has barely had an impact. Sure, you get your Dan Uggla, your Shane Victorino, your Marwin Gonzalez, your ha-ha-the-Phillies-drafted-and-returned-Ender Inciarte here and there, but it’s just not too big of a deal.

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