The Rule 5 Draft is major league baseball’s annual spare part marketplace, a combination surplus store and outlet center where teams like the KC Royals can pick over and sort through a variety of players deemed dispensable by other clubs and, occasionally, find a good and lasting bargain. More often than not, though, the purchased products fail to perform; some are returned to their original clubs, others discarded because those clubs refuse to take them back.
Known superstars aren’t stocked for the “Rule 5.” Instead, its inventory consists primarily of players who, if they’ve made it to the majors at all, haven’t proven to be true big-league caliber; unless their organizations place them on coveted 40-man rosters, players drafted out of college with four years of pro ball, and those drafted out of high school with five years in the pros, find themselves “unprotected” by those clubs, exposed to purchase for the comparatively measly sum of $100,000, a cheap price to pay for baseball talent.