Who’s on the Block? Dodgers Prospect Who Might be Selected in…

The Rule 5 Draft is on Wednesday, and will be streamed online at MLB.com beginning at 11 a.m. PT. The Dodgers added only one prospect to their 40-man roster on November 19, left-hander Jack Dreyer. Let’s look at some Dodgers minor leaguers who might get picked by other teams on Wednesday.

Players picked in the major league phase of the Rule 5 Draft have to stick on the active roster of their new team (or whatever team they end up on if traded, or claimed through waivers) for the entire 2025 season, to be able to remain with their new team.

The 2022 Rule 5 Draft revealed three distinct outcomes from just the players selected from the Dodgers. First baseman and outfielder Ryan Noda remained with the A’s for all of 2023, and did the back-and-forth between Oakland and Triple-A in 2024. Pitcher Gus Varland pitched in the majors for the Brewers in 2023 but was eventually returned to the Dodgers that May. Left-hander Jose Hernandez stuck with the Pirates for all of 2023, but ended up getting traded back to the Dodgers this June.

Pitchers are the most commonly picked in the Rule 5 Draft, as it’s easier to carry an extra reliever on a roster than just about any other position. In the last two Rule 5 Drafts, 23 of the 25 drafted players were pitchers. Nine of those pitchers remained all season with their new teams, eight of them relievers. Mitch Spence, who was taken from the Yankees last December, is the outlier here, pitching 151⅓ innings with Oakland in 2024.

In Rule 5 Draft previews up at Baseball America, MLB.com, and The Athletic, the only Dodgers pitcher listed among possible players picked is Jack Little, at BA. Picked by the Dodgers out of Stanford in the fifth round of the 2019 draft, Little missed the 2022 season after Tommy John surgery. The right-hander split 2024 between Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City, posting a 3.79 ERA in 47 games, with 63 strikeouts and 16 walks in 57 innings, with a 19.8-percent strikeout-minus-walk rate.

“Little has a good one-two punch in his fastball and slider, with the slider sitting 84-85 mph with an unusual horizontal approach angle that makes it look to have more sweep than it actually does,” Geoff Pontes and J.J. Cooper wrote at Baseball America. “These deceptive traits and the ability to land both his fastball and slider consistently give him a pair of pitches that could work in a big league bullpen right away.”

Other potential Dodgers pitchers are Jerming Rosario and Carlos Duran, both of whom were signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2018. Rosario is 22 and Duran turned 23 in July. Rosario back in November was listed by Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo at MLB.com as the Dodgers’ toughest decision whether to add to the 40-man roster to protect from the Rule 5 Draft.

Rosario excelled in the Arizona Fall League, striking out 35 percent of his batters faced in 16 desert innings. Rosario and Duran each ended their regular seasons with a single start in Triple-A, which seems likely to hinder teams from stashing them on a major league roster, but the last two Rule 5 Drafts have not shown that. 2022 Rule 5 draftees Hernandez, Thaddeus Ward, and Mason Englert never pitched above Double-A but stuck with their new teams all year. Justin Slaten only had 8⅓ innings in Triple-A when he was taken in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, but remained this entire season with the Red Sox.

On the hitting side, three of the four position players picked in the last two Rule 5 Draft stuck with their new teams — Noda with the A’s, catcher Blake Sabol with the Giants in 2023; infielder Nasim Nuñez with the Nationals in 2024. All of them had extensive experience in Triple-A prior to going in the Rule 5 Draft.

Damon Keith missed the first two months of 2024 on the injured list, but hasn’t yet played in Triple-A. He did well for Double-A Tulsa this season, hitting .259/.340/.497 with a 132 wRC+ and 16 home runs in 75 games, then finished up by going 6-for-15 with a home run and double in the Arizona Fall League.

Keith, who was drafted by the Dodgers in the 18th round in 2021 out of Cal Baptist, was listed by both Melissa Lockard at The Athletic and by Pontes and Cooper at Baseball America.

“As far as power hitters go, there’s few players available in the Rule 5 draft with as much raw power as Keith,” BA wrote. “His 108.9 mph 90th percentile exit velocity ranks as the third-highest among Rule 5-eligible players.”

The other Dodgers position player to watch Wednesday is Ryan Ward, the outfielder and first baseman who led the Pacific Coast League with 33 home runs this season, hitting .258/.317/.563 with a 103 wRC+ in 120 games for Oklahoma City.

Ward also thrived in the Premier12 tournament in November in Tokyo, leading the tournament with five home runs while winning a bronze medal with Team USA. Ward was listed as a potential Rule 5 draftee by The Athletic, Baseball America, as well as by Jim Callis, Jonahtan Mayo, and Sam Dykstra at MLB.com.

“A 2019 eighth-rounder from Bryant, he’s pretty much a one-tool guy but his power has translated into 110 homers in four full pro seasons and he could be the slugging lefty half of a corner outfield platoon.”

The 2024 Rule 5 Draft will start at 11 a.m. PT on Wednesday. But as a reminder, just because a player is selected on Wednesday doesn’t necessarily mean they are gone for good.