The World Series is now almost three weeks in the past, and the Winter Meetings, when many of the offseason’s big trades and free agent signings take place, are still almost three weeks away. But Tuesday was, rather quietly, one of the most important days of the year for Major League Baseball. That was deadline day for clubs to add players to their 40-man rosters, or remove them.
Any player who has not yet seen big-league action and who has at least five years in the minors â four for those signed at age 19 or older â needs to be on a 40-man roster or become subject to the Rule 5 draft, where any other team can claim him. This year’s Rule 5 draft takes place on Dec. 10.
A team that drafts a player under the Rule 5 provisions must keep that player on its major league, 26-man roster throughout the entire subsequent season, or return the player to his previous team.
Trio of Prospects Protected
The New York Yankees chose to add three prospects to their 40-man roster on Tuesday. Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ 2022 first-round draft pick and currently No. 4 ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, got a spot on the roster.
Two pitchers were also placed on the 40-man Yankees roster: Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, the organization’s No. 3 prospect who was acquired in a trade with the Boston Red Sox for catcher Carlos Narvaez last year, and Chase Hampton, New York’s No. 8 prospect who spent the season on the injured list with Tommy John surgery.
Yankees Toughest Rule 5 Decision
But as the name implies, the 40-man roster has only 40 spots, and after the elevations of Jones, Hampton and Rodriguez-Cruz, the Yankees’ roster is now at capacity. That means Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, like all MLB execs on Tuesday, was forced to make some difficult decisions, knowing that any prospect who was left off the 40-man roster, and who met the service time requirements, could simply be gone as of Dec. 10.
Cashman’s toughest call, according to an assessment by MLB.com talent evaluators Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis in a report published late Tuesday, was the decision to exclude 26-year-old right-handed reliever Harrison Cohen, a local product who grew up in Syosset, New York, who signed with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 2022, out of George Washington University, to become the Bronx Bombersâ No. 30 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.
“On one hand, Cohen is a 26-year-old former nondrafted free agent out of George Washington with an ordinary low-90s fastball,” wrote Mayo and Callis in their report on Cohen. “On the other, his mid-80s slider and slightly harder cutter have been unhittable, and he logged a 1.76 ERA, .151 average against and 59 strikeouts in 51 innings between Double-A and Triple-A.”
Cohen May be Gone From Yankees Organization
“Cohen thrives despite having a fastball that is ordinary in terms of its velocity (sitting at 92â94 mph, touching 96), and he struggles to land it in the strike zone,” added Nate Weiser of the Pinstripe State of Mind newsletter. “He compensates for a lack of elite velocity on his four-seamer with a mid-80s slider and slightly harder cutter that have been nearly unhittable.”
By leaving Cohen off the 40-man roster, Cashman has effectively decided to cut ties with Cohen. Whether or not the righty reliever is selected is now out of the Yankees’ hands.
Leaving prospects unprotected in the Rule 5 draft can produce risky unintended consequences. In 2020, the Yankees chose to protect righty pitcher Garrett Whitlock, only to see him selected by their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox.
In 22 head-to-head appearances against the Yankees for Boston, Whitlock has since posted an ERA of 1.77 with 47 strikeouts, winning five decisions against only one loss.
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