High-Fives for the Rule 5s – Official & Unofficial

The Baltimore Orioles are routinely dismissed to make any headline-grabbing moves every year at the annual Winter Meetings.

Sure, they are always in many rumors for newly-minted free agents or trade talk with other teams who might be looking to move a veteran to make room for a stud prospect at that position — but the end result almost always seems to involve other teams by the time the transaction is announced.

There in an exception, though…not exactly known as the sexiest roster move, but the Orioles always seem to come home with a Rule 5 acquisition.

The move is a bit of a gamble since — here’s a loose explanation — if the team can’t manage to keep the young player on the 25-man, Major League roster, that team forfeits the player from the organization. The Orioles have had three such players on the roster, but only one is officially a Rule 5 draft selection.

General manager Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter have made a habit of this since the offseason before the Orioles’ breakout 2012 year when they plucked Ryan Flaherty — a light hitter, for sure, but a guy who is capable of starting defensively anywhere on the infield and the corner outfield positions — from the Cubs’ organization.

Flaherty, who is still on the Orioles’ major league roster — likely due to his versatility, which appeals to Showalter — has been the team’s most successful pickup. The Orioles have selected other Rule 5 guys (pitchers T.J. McFarland, Jason Garcia and Logan Verrett), among others) with mixed results — but most have stuck. Showalter was able to nurse Flaherty, MacFarland and Garcia through their respective seasons and they all are still part of the organization

This year, the Orioles have been maneuvering with three Rule 5 players — OK, just one officially in outfielder Joey Rickard, who has to be offered back to the Rays before he could be outright to the minors — but the other two have had the same restrictions for Duquette and Showalter.

Because of unusual contract language, pitcher Dylan Bundy and outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, would both be required to be kept on the Orioles’ major league roster (unless given permission from the player to be demoted to the minors) or given his outright release — free to sign with any other organization. But, basically, the Orioles have had to handle both with Rule 5 gloves.

Back when the team headed north in April from Sarasota, Kim and Bundy would not have been on the major league roster with all things being equal: Kim had a lousy spring training with two infield hits and appeared overwhelmed in his at-bats, and the Orioles would surely have welcomed a chance to get Bundy — their former first-round draft selection (No. 4 overall in 2011) — some MiLB innings after he had missed practically three years to various injuries and surgeries. Ideally, both would have gone to Norfolk for seasoning.

But their contracts prevented anything but keeping them. Duquette practically guaranteed reporters that Kim would accept a minor-league assignment. The South Korean corner outfielder didn’t, and was greeted with waves of jeers and boos from the OPACY seats in the season-opener. Bundy was handled very carefully and, at first, only came into games with the win or loss assured.

But suddenly, Kim started hitting, and Bundy began piling up shutout innings. Eventually, they were both starting — something remarkable in Bundy’s case, since rumors of a team-mandated inning limit were inescapable.

So, for the majority of the season, three players — or one in eight players on the 25-man roster — were in the “Keep me or lose me” category.

Fortunately for the Orioles, Rickard offered some stability to the leadoff spot for the first half of the season and was arguably the team’s second-best defensive outfielder until Kim and Bundy found their strides.
Now, Kim is batting .310 in 77 games and seems to be a popular addition with his teammates, and Bundy — sporting a respectable 3.82 ERA and second on the team with eight pitching victories— has a chance to get 10-plus wins, which should put him in the conversation for American League Rookie of the Year considerations, despite struggling in his last several starts.

Ironically, the one “official” Rule 5 player, Rickard is not on the 25-man roster now. (If a player is injured and unable to play, the drafting team is permitted to place him on the disabled list without penalty — an exception that served as a reprieve for the Orioles in 2015 with a less-than-impressive Garcia, who found out his 95-plus mph fastball wasn’t enough to get MLB hitters out.)

The “Keep me or lose me” trio has played a strong role in keeping the Orioles at or near the top of the American League East standings, and at worst, the race for a wild card spot.

all photos: Craig Landefeld/GulfBird Photo