Minnesota Twins Lose Zach Jones to Rule 5 Draft
The Minnesota Twins have lost Zach Jones to the Brewers in Rule 5 Draft
The Minnesota Twins chose not to protect Zach Jones from the Rule 5 draft by placing him on the 40-man roster. They lost him this morning in the second round to the Milwaukee Brewers. It didn’t come as much of a surprise. His vulnerability had been noted.
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The righty Jones can light up the radar guns but has trouble with his control. The old baseball adage seems to have some application here: He’s a thrower, not a pitcher. Zach played high A and AA this year. He was excellent in Fort Myers but struggled in Chattanooga. He had a 6.00 ERA and a 6 BB/9 in 27 IP there. His career minor league average strikeout rate (12.81 K/9) was enticing for the Brewers. He’s still raw but there’s a chance the Brewers will catch lightning in a bottle next season with him.
The Twins will receive $50 000 in compensation for the selection. The Brewers must now keep Jones on their 25 man roster for the entire 2016 season or if they remove him from it, they must offer him back to the Twins for $25 000. There’s not a lot of risk to the Brewers. It’s essentially a $25 000-$50 000 gamble. Very reasonable when considering the millions being tossed about for mediocre relievers these days.
The Twins made no selections in the Major or minor league portions of the Rule 5. Their 40 man roster was already full. It was out of character for Minnesota as they’ve made many selections in recent years. The issue with a well stocked farm system is the risk of losing players to the Rule 5. That’s the case with the Twins and it’s a good problem to have. There was some concern that the Twins would lose more than just Jones but to the relief of Twins’ management, those concerns proved unfounded.
#MNTwins felt relieved not to lose a second player in Rule 5. Thought there was a chance for couple others in MLB phase.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) December 10, 2015
Next: Could Rajai Davis Be a Fit for the Twins?
The Rule 5 in total only had 16 selections in the major league phase. For a full list of selections see here.