Friday, November 20 is the deadline for teams to file their 40-man roster reserve lists for the December 10th Rule 5 Draft. Players are not required to be protected on a club’s reserve list until they’ve been under club control for 4 or 5 years, depending on the age they signed. For this year’s draft, minor league college draftees from the 2006 draft class (or earlier) and high school players drafted in 2005 (or earlier) can be selected by other organizations if they are not on the Reds 40-man roster today.
Teams cannot protect additional (minor league) players after today, but they could create roster space to add players in the draft. The worst example of this in recent Reds history is dropping Jorge Cantu in 2007 for the opportunity to select Sergio Valenzuela.
The Reds 40-man roster currently sits at 36 players. The Reds 40-man roster and organizational depth chart is outlined on the Redleg Nation Big Board over in the right sidebar. The only roster change since the last update is that Kip Wells filed for free agency.
Travis Wood, Chris Heisey, and Chris Valaika are the clear favorites to take three of the current four roster openings. Logan Ondrusek made his way through multiple levels this season, finishing in the Louisville closer’s role and was sent to the Arizona Fall League. He’s likely to take the 4th current opening on the 40-man roster.
The Reds talent depth will likely discourage them from participating in the Rule 5 draft this year. We may even see another move or two today to protect additional minor league players.
They could make space by removing Willy Taveras, Craig Tatum, and Laynce Nix from the roster, and protecting additional arms (like Enerio Del Rosario, Alex Smit, and Ben Jukich) or another bat like Daniel Dorn.
UPDATE 3:50pm: John Fay of the Enquirer and many others are tweeting that the Reds promoted 7 minor league players to their 40-man roster:
- Travis Wood
Chris Valaika
Chris Heisey
Logan Ondrusek
Enerio Del Rosario
Jordan Smith
Philippe Valiquette
To make room for these players, the 40-man roster was reduced from 36 to 33 by waiving Craig Tatum (claimed by Orioles) and Daryl Thompson. They also non-tendered Laynce Nix, who elected to become a free agent.