As the 2011 Baseball Winter Meetings come to a conclusion today in Dallas, the last piece of business there the Boston Red Sox had to deal with was the MLB Rule 5 Draft.
If you aren’t familiar with the Rule 5 process, a team pays $50,000 for taking a player and that particular player must stay on the 25-man roster for the entire season. If he doesn’t stay on the roster for the whole season, he must be offered back to his original club at $25,000.
The player the Red Sox lost was Cesar Cabral, who was taken last year in the Rule 5 draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, to the Kansas City Royals. The Royals then traded him to the New York Yankees for cash considerations.
The Red Sox did select Marwin Gonzalez from the Chicago Cubs with their pick in the MLB portion of the draft.
That selection makes you wonder if he’s part of the compensation package that the Red Sox will eventually receive from the Cubs for Theo Epstein.
After being returned by the Rays, Cabral spent the 2011 season with the Salem Red Sox and Portland Sea Dogs. With Salem, he was 1-0 with a 1.62 ERA in 12 games. With the Sea Dogs, he was 2-4 with a 3.52 ERA in 24 games.
Gonzalez spent the 2011 season with the Tennessee Smokies and Iowa Cubs. In 64 games with the Smokies, he hit .301 with two home runs, 20 RBIs and four stolen bases. In 60 games with the Iowa Cubs, he hit .274 with two home runs, 19 RBIs and three stolen bases. Combined on the season, Gonzalez hit .288 with four home runs, 39 RBIs and seven stolen bases.
UPDATE: Of course no faster than I post this, the Red Sox will trade Gonzalez according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com. Speier tweeted that Gonzalez will be sent to the Astros for Marco Duarte who was selected by the Astros from the Colorado Rockies.
The Red Sox also selected Gerardo Olivares, a catcher out of the Rays organization in the Triple-A phase of the draft. He’ll add some catching depth to the organization.
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