RandBall: MLB and the wonderfully quirky Rule 5 Draft

Have you ever had a moment of quiet clarity when you start to question the reality of a word you otherwise use all the time?

You might repeat “banana” five times, and with each successive time you utter it to yourself it feels less like a word — and therefore less representative of a long yellow piece of fruit.

A minute later you might see a banana, immediately know what to call it, and never question it again.

The process reinforces that language only exists as a way to convey meaning if we abide by the same rules.

And rules only matter if we agree on them.

Anyway, perhaps that’s just a quirk of my own brain or personality. But getting stuck in those language loops every now and then is the closest proxy I can think of to explain how I feel about something ostensibly different:

Major League Baseball’s Rule 5 Draft.

This quirk of the sport makes no sense if we dissect it and repeat the rules of the process over and over. It only holds value when we give up and accept that there is a thing called the Rule 5 Draft and when those who are impacted by it follow the odd twists and turns that govern its existence.

It was on my mind Wednesday when reading Phil Miller’s piece about the Twins' latest foray into the Rule 5 Draft. It’s a fun read that also includes the Twins' suddenly rekindled interest in carrying a third catcher for alleged flexibility that might be useful once a month (something I talked about on the Daily Delivery podcast).

The Twins chose pitcher Eiberson Castellano in the Rule 5 Draft this offseason, plucking him off the Phillies roster.

That cost them $100,000, which is not nothing but also shouldn’t bind them to Castellano. The rules of the draft, which are half game show and half making it up as you go along, say otherwise.

Castellano must stay on the Twins major league roster this entire season if they are going to keep him. That’s rule 1 of the Rule 5 Draft. If they decide he’s not worth it, they have to offer him back to the Phillies for $50,000.

That is a very weird rule.

But it is also one that a lot of us know verbatim and blindly accept makes some sort of sense because this plays out in MLB all the time. These are just the rules of the Rule 5 Draft.

It most famously worked out to the Twins’ advantage a quarter-century ago, when Florida chose Johan Santana in the 1999 Rule 5 Draft on their behalf and immediately traded him to the Twins.

Santana was awful in 2000, sporting a 6.49 ERA, but the Twins hung onto him for the full season as part of the rule. By 2004, he won the first of two Cy Young Awards and was the best pitcher in baseball.

Castellano has a 9.35 ERA this spring and is walking one batter per inning. Anyone else with those numbers would probably be a surefire candidate for the minors. But the Twins can’t do that because of the rules.

His stuff is great, but can the Twins — who fancy themselves AL Central contenders in 2025, which was not the case at all in 2000 — afford to have him hold a roster spot for 162 games?

Thinking about all that is implied by that dilemma can only lead us to a final conclusion: The Rule 5 Draft is bananas.