The Rule 5 protection deadline forces MLB teams to pick which prospects to shield from being snatched up by another team, and the Pittsburgh Pirates still have some decisions to make before Tuesday's hard-and-fast deadline.
The Pirates have a finite number of protection spots, so sometimes the decision is not “should we protect this guy?” but rather, “which guys must we protect, and which ones can we afford to expose?” Exposure doesn’t necessarily mean the player will be taken, so the club may judge the risk of losing a given prospect is low enough to accept –– especially if the player is further out or has more development to go.