By Friday, the Orioles must add any eligible minor leaguer to the 40-man roster if they don’t want to expose him to December’s Rule 5 draft.
This practice is often considered an evaluation — examining which prospects a team values and which ones it doesn’t. So, every year, there is some handwringing about which players are left off the roster and are, therefore, eligible to be snagged by another club for a $100,000 fee.
That’s too much of a simplification, though. There’s plenty of strategy behind the decisions; it’s more about which players are most likely to survive a full year in the big leagues than it is which ones an organization values the most. Generally, players who are eligible for the Rule 5 draft were signed at age 18 or younger and have five seasons in the pros, or were signed at 19 or older and have four pro seasons on their resumes.
What’s most interesting about the 40-man additions that will be…
