The Guardians have to decide which prospects to protect before the Rule 5 draft, making their choices by 4pm ET tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18th.
As a reminder, Rule 5 specifices that players signed at 18 years or younger must be added to the 40-man within five professional seasons, and those signed at 19 or older must be added within four seasons, or they are eligible to be selected by other teams. Those teams must keep those players on their active roster for one full season in order to retain their rights;
otherwise, they must be returned to their original organization.
The Guardians currently have 37 players on their roster, so they can fit three more players on the roster without any other moves. However, they also have quite a few players on the roster bubble, so, if they need more space, they can acquire some. Here’s a list of players whom the team can either trade, let go or cut and try to get through waivers without raising many eyebrows:
-Nolan Jones, LHH OF
-Zak Kent, RHrP
-Doug Nikhazy, LHP
-Nic Enright, RHrP
-Will Brennan, LHH OF
-Johnathan Rodriguez, RHH OF
-Jhonkensy Noel, RHH OF
When it comes to adding prospects to the Guardians’ 40-man, there are four primary players of interest:
Angel Genao, SH SS, 21 years old – so far in the minors has a 126 wRC+, 16.3/10.5 K/BB%, finishing the season in Double-A.
Kahlil Watson, LHH CF, 22 years old – last year, put up a 128 wRC+ with 27.7/11.7 K/BB% in the minors with Cleveland, finishing the season in Triple-A.
Austin Peterson, RHP, 26 years old – had a 3.21 ERA with a 7.85/2.47 K/BB/9 in Double and Triple-A in 2025.
Yorman Gomez, RHP, 23 years old – had a 2.96 ERA with a 10.28/3.55 K/BB/9 in the minors last year, finishing in Double-A.
There are also some additional names who may receive consideration:
Wuilfredo Antunez, LHH OF, 23 years old – had a 138 wRC+ and a 22.1/7.7 K/BB% in the minors last year and hit a couple home runs in the Arizona Fall League before sustaining a shoulder injury.
Steven Perez, LHrP, 24 years old – had a 1.83 ERA with a 9.13/2.61 K/BB/9 in the minors, topping out at Double-A.
Trenton Denholm, RHP, 25 years old – had a 3.88 ERA and a 7.75/1.87 K/BB/9 in the minors last year and showed some flashes of brilliance in the Arizona Fall League, while trying to add a knuckleball to his pitch mix.
If I had to guess, I think Genao, Watson, Peterson and Gomez all get added, but Gomez is the most likely to be left unprotected of the bunch, not having a lot of prospect pedigree and not having pitched about Double-A. I wonder if Antunez becomes more of a concern to be added because of his injury which other teams could use to stash him, but I would still think his selection would be pretty unlikely. We will know soon enough, and then we’ll also have a chance to see who was left unprotected by other teams in case Cleveland wants to leave a spot open to select someone.
