As is tradition, on the last day of the MLB Winter Meetings, the Rule 5 Draft is held. In this year’s Draft, the Yankees lost 5 prospects to various teams but picked up 1 prospect. All will be sent to their respective organization’s Triple-A affiliate.
From MLB: “Players who turned pro at age 18 or younger in 2020 or at age 19 or older in 2021 were eligible for selection in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft if he wasn’t on a 40-man roster. Clubs who took a player in that phase must pay his former team $100,000 and keep him on their active big-league roster throughout the following season. The player can’t be sent to the Minors without first clearing waivers and then getting offered back to his original organization for half his draft price.
It costs $24,000 to take a player in the Triple-A phase, with no restrictions about where those players can be placed in 2025.”
Fortunately, and almost surprisingly, the Yankees did not lose any prospects in the MLB phase. Last year, the Athletics chose former RHP prospect Mitch Spence as their first-round selection, going 1st overall. Spence later made his MLB debut with the A’s on the second day of the 2024 season, March 29th. Ironically, a former Yankees infield prospect, Cooper Bowman, was selected in the minor league portion of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft by the A’s, but he was selected in this year’s Draft by the Reds. Hopefully, Bowman will make his MLB debut in 2025, considering he is now essentially a part of the Reds’ bench.
That said, the Yankees were able to make a selection in the first round of the Minor League Draft (also called the Triple-A phase), selecting outfielder Luis Durango, a native of Panamá City, Panamá, from the Cleveland Guardians.
In 2024, the 21-year-old left-handed batter hit .250 (33-for-132) with 25R, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 14 RBI, 9 walks and 21 stolen bases in 41 games with Guardians’ Single-A affiliate, Lynchburg. In total, Durango hit .253 (145-for-574) with 118 R, 25 extra-base hits, including 18 doubles, 4 triples and 3 home runs. He also has recorded 47 RBI, 68 walks and 87 stolen bases in 181 games over four Minor League seasons with the Guardians (2021-2024).
The only caution fans may have is how injury-prone Durango has been. Durango missed nearly all of May, plus nearly all the second half of the 2024 season to injury, playing a total of 44 games.
Of the players the Yankees lost in the Triple-A phase:
- Cincinnati selected LHP Joel Valdez (first round, last with A+ Hudson Valley)
- St. Louis selected LHP Oddanier Mosqueda (first round, last with AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre)
- Atlanta selected RHP Blane Abeyta (first round, last with AA Somerset)
- Pittsburgh selected OF Joel Méndez (fifth round, last with FCL)
- Philadelphia selected RHP Gabriel Barbosa (fifth round, last with A Tampa, selected in 2023 Rule 5 from Colorado)
To be blunt, most of these prospects did not have a significant impact on the Yankees system. In fact, Yankees fans should be overjoyed that the system did not lose some of the best talent, including but not limited to, RHP Zach Messinger, LHP Edgar Barclay, 1B T.J. Rumfield, and many others. You can view our preview of the Draft here, where we discuss those prospects that we were concerned about losing.