Friday evening was the deadline for teams to protect eligible prospects from the Rule 5 Draft, and we have been talking all week about the decisions the Boston Red Sox had to make. The team had seven open 40-man spots at their disposal, though the math is obviously not quite that simple as they also want to add other players from outside the organization. Still, they had a lot of potential additions, so there was some curiosity about what they would ultimately do. To my surprise at least, they only protected four players, with Jeter Downs, Josh Winckowski, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford being added to the 40-man.
Red Sox add Jeter Downs, three others to 40-man roster
