As the Baseball Winter Meetings come to conclusion in Indianapolis, the Rule 5 Draft was held Thursday morning.
While the Boston Red Sox didn’t take anyone, they did lose two players from their farm system. They are third baseman Jorge Jimenez who spent the 2009 season with the Portland Sea Dogs and left-handed pitcher Armando Zerpa who was with the Greenville Drive and Salem Red Sox in 2009.
Jimenez was taken by the Houston Astros and then was traded to the Florida Marlins as the player to be named later from the Matt Lindstrom deal. Zerpa was picked up by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Jimenez hit .289 with 13 home runs and 87 RBIs in 133 games for the Sea Dogs. In 22 games with the Drive, Zerpa was 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA. In 16 games in Salem, he was 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA.
In case you were wondering how the Rule 5 Draft works, here’s the breakdown:
Players are eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft who are not on their major league organization’s forty man roster and:
- were signed at age 19 or older and have been in the organization for four years; or
- were signed at age 18 or younger and have been in the organization for five years.
It costs a team $50,000 to make a choice and that player must remain on the 25 man roster for the entire season. If not, he’s to be offered back to the original club for $25,000.
