With next week's MLB Winter Meetings comes the Rule 5 Draft. For those unfamiliar with the event, it allows opposing teams to select certain players from another organization who are not part of the 40-man roster. The selecting team must pay $100,000 to the rival club and then carry that player on the active roster throughout the season in order to avoid losing him to outright waivers.
To prevent players from being poached by other organizations, teams may chose to add their top prospects to the 40-man roster, much like the Cincinnati Reds did with Edwin Arroyo, Leo Balcazar, Héctor Rodríguez, and Jose Franco.