FanPost

2018 Rule 5 Draft: Final Review

Back in July, I did a piece (Link) taking a look at the year's Rule 5 draft picks and their current status, including how well they were playing. Seven players were still on their claiming teams' rosters, but only one (Brad Keller) was putting up decent numbers. With the season concluded, let's look back on how those seven players were able to handle this year in the Majors (all stats via Baseball Reference).

  1. Victor Reyes, OF, Tigers - Victor got more playing time as the season progressed, but never really showed that he belonged in the majors. He finished the season with a .222/.239/.526 line, OPS+ of 43, and a -0.8 WAR. He did swipe 9 bags to only one CS, but he also had a total of 9 XBHs in 212 ABs. He'll most likely start next year in the minors for more seasoning.
  2. Carlos Tocci, OF, Rangers - Carlos did even worse than Reyes, finishing up with a .225/.271/.555 line, OPS+ of 46, 0 SB, and a -1.3 WAR, earning him the title of "worst Rule 5 performer of the year"
  3. Brad Keller, P, Royals - Tigers fans saw Keller a few times as a SP for the Royals, where he had decent success against the Tigers. Keller was the lone positive of the class, with a 3.08 ERA, 1.304 WHIP, 3.55 FIP, and 3.6 WAR, all while giving the Royals 140.1 IP with 20 starts. That 3.6 WAR would have led the entire Tigers roster this year, btw.
  4. Burch Smith, P, Royals - Smith did not have the banner year his teammate Keller had. In fact, he got destroyed on a regular basis. Finished the year with a 6.92 ERA, 1.666 WHIP (spoooooooooky), 5.38 FIP, and a -1.2 WAR over 78 innings. He never solved his homeritis either, giving up 15 long bombs. At least he struck out a lot of batters. Or something.
  5. Elieser Hernandez, P, Marlins - 5.21 ERA, 1.447 WHIP, 5.29 FIP, and -0.7 WAR for a miserable Marlins team.
  6. Pedro Araujo, P, Orioles - Oh, how bad were the O's this year... Araujo didn't make it through June, going on the DL for the remainder of the season with an elbow injury. His final line was a staggering 7.71 ERA, 1.679 WHIP, 7.41 FIP, and a -0.5 WAR in only 28 IP.
  7. Brett Graves, P, Marlins - Like his teammate Hernandez, Graves struggled with the Marlins, only putting up a 5.40 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 4.51 FIP (a bit unlucky), and -0.5 WAR, but with only 33.1 IP the entire season.
In recap, seven players managed to hang on with their teams for the entire season (4 of which were not traded for), and only one of them managed to put together a positive WAR. It's still quite early in their careers, but, with the regular season at an end, looks like this Rule 5 draft was mostly a bust.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the <em>Bless You Boys</em> writing staff.