Mariners lose RHP Nolan Hoffman to first overall pick in MiLB Rule 5 Draft, select three others

The MLB Rule 5 Draft remains on hold as the MLB lockout continues, but today brought a small bit of hardtack to gnaw on during these cold and baseball-less months in the form of the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. The MiLB portion of the Rule 5, which follows the MLB portion, happens to somehow even less fanfare, and with somehow even more occluded rules. This year, those rules got even more complicated, since the flipping of orders (usually the MLB Rule 5 precedes the MiLB Rule 5) meant a new roster restriction: teams were only able to take part in this draft if they had free space on their Triple-A rosters. The flipping of orders also means that, since the MLB Rule 5 trumps the MiLB version, any player selected in today’s draft is still eligible to be taken in the MLB portion of the draft. However, the selecting team would still be required to pay a higher selection fee (100K as opposed to the 25K of the MiLB portion) and, more saliently, keep that player on the 25-man roster all season. A couple of other notes: after the draft has concluded, a team is able to assign a player to any level, not just Triple-A; and players can be selected from any level of the minors, as long as they’re Rule-5 eligible/haven’t been added to the 40-man roster.

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