In the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft, unlike the big league phase, if you take a prospect, he’s yours for good. It’s much easier to protect prospects from the minor league phase, though, so you don’t really see tip top wins in the minor league phase. But might as well take some swings, eh?
And the Cubs did, today grabbing a couple low-level relief prospects from the Rays and Pirates:
Padilla last pitched in the Midwest League in 2019, with his last two outings both coming against the South Bend Cubs. In those appearances, he combined to go: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) December 10, 2020
In second round of the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft, Cubs select rhp Samuel Reyes from the Pirates organization. Had a 2.29 ERA across Low- and High-A in 2019.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) December 10, 2020
Bryan is rolling out updates for the draft right here (including the guys the Cubs lost), but your short version for now on these guys is that they are relief-only, and have had great recent success at A/High-A and come from very deep farm systems.
With a year lost to the pandemic, you’re basically just relying on your old scouting systems to grab these guys and see what the year away has done. Maybe you get lucky and someone took a huge step forward, and/or you get them into your system and see what else clicks. There’s really not anything to lose.