The Winter Meetings begin with the excitement of teams making potential signings and trades. It ends every year with the Rule five Draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates along with the other 29 teams had a chance to participate in the draft along with the possibility to lose players from their own organizations. There are two parts of the Rule five draft including the big league portion and the Triple-A portion.
Any player taken in the big league portion of the draft must remain on the drafting team’s roster for the following season or else be returned to their original team.