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40-man roster and the Rule 5 Draft

As of today, the Marlins have 48 players in its 40-man roster including 8 players currently on the 60-day IL. After the World Series, there will be no IL and 8 players will have to be exposed through waivers or released. That situation alone represents a challenge, and to make things more interesting, this winter teams will have the Rule 5 Draft back after being cancelled in 2021.

None of Campbell, Guenther, Hernández, Sulser, Lewin Díaz and Devers have done enough to deserve a spot in the roster, I think. Borderline cases are Luke Williams and Jordan Holloway. Some other players will probably be traded, e.g., López, Garrett, Anderson, Wendle, Berti, Floro, Stallings. I'm sure Kim Ng will try to trigger a trade as early in the offseason as possible, as a few names in the coming Rule 5 Draft actually worth to have in mind for next year's roster.

I finally found a list of players elegible for the Rule 5 Draft in the Marlins system. Although this is not official, Spotrac lists these players as elegible for the draft coming this December:

Luarbert Arias RHP
Parker Bugg RHP
Luis Avilés Jr. INF
Dylan Bice RHP
Bryson Brigman INF
Griffin Conine OF
Tommy Eveld RHP
Robert García LHP
Colton Hock RHP
Matthew Kent LHP
JD Osborne C
George Soriano RHP
Will Stewart LHP
Cobie Fletcher-Vance INF

There are some intriguing nameson that list even though none is a sure thing to be included on the major roster:

Arias is still very young and has shown steady improvement throughout lower levels. Bugg, Eveld, García, Hock and Soriano have been reliable arms out of the bullpen in AAA, but all of them will be older than 27 next season excepting the latter. Brigman had a very good year in 2021, but fell off a cliff this season. Conine hit 24 HRs and has a .435 SLG, but also comes with an improved 44% KO rate. Stewart was much better out of the bullpen although not sure to deserve consideration. Blue Wahoos' championship hero, Fletcher-Vance, along with Kent, Bice, Aviles Jr. and Osborne, had unimpressive seasons.

In my view, the players whom can be considered to be protected this coming Rule 5 Draft are Eveld, Soriano and Colton Hock. "Touchdown Tommy" will be 29 next year and has nothing left to prove in the minors, doing so with solid numbers: 37 K, 10 BB and 0.99 WHIP in 39.1 IP this season. Soriano is still 23 and has closer potential but control issues as well. Hock is somewhere in between the former two, with good numbers, good control, but less room for improvement than George. Normal standard for the Marlins organisation to have a strong group of arms but a lack of bats even in situations like this one.

The utlimate decision obviously depends on how the offseason develops before the Draft. Furthermore, the Marlins' FO love to take Rule 5 players from other organisations, with recent examples Elieser Hernández and Charles LeBlanc. I am sure there will be teams waiting to see how the Marlins move during the Draft, specially those with much bullpen needs like KC, A's, Detroit, Colorado and Washington. My only wish is not to have any other Jarlín García-type decisions for constructing a roster.

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