Major League Baseball's annual winter meetings are underway in San Diego, California and will run until December 7th. Some front office personnel generally stick around for the Rule Five Draft though and it'll take place in earnest for the first time in two years on Wednesday morning.
The Rule Four Draft remains the bigger deal for the industry but talent can be procured in this version still and opportunities are presented for players to earn a big league career while making more money than they've ever made before as part of a 40-man roster. This will be the first Rule Five Draft with 26-man roster rules in place and it'll be interesting to see the effect that it has on the process.
As I wrote about previously, any players currently under contract with a club who were initially signed before the end of the 2018 MiLB season and were 18 and under at the time of signing are eligible for the big league phase of the Rule 5 draft if they are not currently on a 40-man roster. Any players who were 19 or older who signed initially before the end of the 2019 MiLB season are eligible if they are not currently on a 40-man roster.
A team must have an open 40-man roster spot to select a player in the major league phase of the Rule Five Draft. The selecting team pays $100,000 to procure a player. That player cannot be optioned to the minors during the entirety of the 2023 season and the player must spend at least 90 days on the active big league roster (days on the injured or suspended list do not count toward the 90-day limit).
