As the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings draw to a close each year, and fans are still grading their respective team’s signings, trades, or lack thereof, one event ensures a bevy of prospects will change teams, the Rule 5 Draft. This Thursday, December 12th, all 30 teams will have a chance to lay claim to unprotected players, including 63 who appear on MLB’s team top-30 lists.<\/p>\n
For those who aren’t familiar, all teams must add any prospects who have acquired enough service time to their 40-man roster or else leave them unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft. Any team that selects a player in the Rule 5 must keep them on their 25-man roster all season, or place them on waivers. While most of the players selected in the Rule 5 draft end up being roster fillers, some big names have also been chosen: Shane Victorino<\/a>, Johan Santana<\/a>, Josh Hamilton<\/a>, Dan Uggla<\/a>, R.A. Dickey<\/a>, Marwin Gonzalez<\/a>, Justin Bour<\/a>, and Joakim Soria<\/a> were all selected in the Rule 5 Draft before going on to make an impact on those MLB teams.<\/p>\n