The Rule 5 draft typically ends the Winter Meetings, and in this case that will be Wednesday 2pm ET, and so we continue the series of offseason posts entirely related to the transactions around it. For the major league phase, the Phillies have not selected and kept a player in a number of years, but with 8 open 40 man roster spots they have the room to make a selection if they want to (in particular a reliever spot is probably open). They have some players who will be of varying interest to other organizations as well. On the minor league side, I don’t have who the Phillies will protect on the 38 man AAA roster, but we can expect they will select a bunch of players as they have the last 3 years.
Players that Could be Selected
When it comes to who gets selected in the Rule 5 draft these days it tends to be standard archetypes of players, but more importantly it is immediate contribution. Gone are the days of attempting to stash a project all year, there are just too much season to cover, and not enough roster spots to do it in.
RHP Griff McGarry – McGarry has great stuff, especially his re-introduced sweeper. He had success as a 4-5 inning starting pitcher in 2025. Though, even then he walked 5.3 per 9 across three levels. McGarry’s fastball is mid 90s with a flat approach angle that will appeal to many teams. McGarry has struggled every time he has been in a bullpen, but that is the area that any selecting team is likely going to target. The best team situation for selecting McGarry would be a bad team that wants to give him some time as a starter to see if he can at least be a 5 inning, high performance, low efficiency stater.
RHP Saul Teran – Teran’s breaking ball is big league quality, but his fastballs may not be. If he had performed at AAA or even AA for an extended period of time the Phillies might even have protected him. His lack of high minors track record and decreased strikeout rate in high-A make him risky to be an immediate contributor, and that probably makes teams pass on him in favor of bigger fastballs and AAA track records that are available.
LHP Andrew Walling – Walling is a lefty with a fastball up to 97 and a host of pitches that all move glove side. He has a AA track record, but his numbers are just mostly ok. Lefties with velocity are always interesting, but Walling may not be enough of an immediate contributor to be selected.
1B/OF Felix Reyes – Reyes can hit the ball hard with very good contact rates, and wrecked LHPs in 2025. He has an overly aggressive approach that is likely to be exploited by good pitchers, which will cut into his contact quality. He can stand in the outfield and at first base, but is not a great defender at each. Teams tend to like their short handed platoon bats in the corners to be major league ready, and it will take someone in an org pounding the table to have them take Reyes.
Minor League Phase
The Phillies can protect up to 38 players on their AAA roster, they typically only protect about 31 because that leaves that will a plethora of roster spots open to make selections in the draft. The Phillies currently have 47 Rule 5 eligible players so they will need to balance out protecting lower minor interesting players and players likely to be AA/AAA depth. However, they should be able to protect almost any depth player of note if they would like to keep them in the organization. The following players are not necessarily available, but fit the type of players that are left exposed by organizations each season.
RHP Ryan Cusick, RHP John McMillon – Both were on the 40 man roster in 2025, but were still under their minor league contracts post being outrighted. Cusick was terrible across three different orgs’ AAA rosters and McMillon was subpar in AA. Unless the Phillies have a special interest in them, they feel like players left available who might be selected by a team that needs AA/AAA depth.
LHP Adam Seminaris, RHP Colin Puluse, IF Liover Peguero, OF Bryan De La Cruz – Every year a team makes a minor league FA signing, leaves them unprotected, and another team takes them. It feels unlikely that De La Cruz or Peguero are left exposed, but there is a non-zero chance the Phillies did not protect one or both of the pitchers.
LHP Erubiel Armenta, RHP Gabriel Barbosa, IF Jose Colmenares, RHP Michael Mercado, RHP Andrew Bechtold, IF Erick Brito – All of them are minor league FA re-signings. Mercado, Bechtold, and Brito are all upper minors depth that the Phillies probably want to keep and would be interesting to other teams. Barbosa has actually been selected in the Rule 5 draft the last two years. Armenta and Colmenarez are likely available if a team needs a high-A body.
LHP Kleyderve Andrade – Andrade was an older signing in 2022 and then missed 2025 due to injury. He has not pitched above low-A, but has interesting future reliever traits if a team wants to take a flyer on a guy a way away. For that same reason, the Phillies are unlikely to use a roster spot to protect him.
C Luis Caicuto, 1B Carson Taylor – Both Caicuto and Taylor are former Rule 5 selections of the Phillies. Caicuto is squeezed in the JS/REA catching situation and Taylor is a bit redundant with Reyes and Keaton Anthony in AAA. Both are solid org players which might put them on the border.
IF Alex Binelas, IF Nick Biddison, IF Brock Vradenburg – All three are infield depth pieces picked up by the Phillies during last season with time remaining on their minor league control. All are probably on the fringes of rosters overall.
LHP Braeden Fausnaught – Fausnaught had Tommy John in June and will miss most of 2026, but is under team control until 2028. He isn’t really a major league prospect, but has been solid pitching depth. A team could take him and stash him for the future, but that is probably too much for an arm without any real upside.
RHP Micah Ottenbreit, RHP Christian McGowan – Both Ottenbreit and McGowan are interesting high round pitchers who got decent bonuses back in 2021. However, Ottenbreit is out for next year with his second Tommy John surgery and McGowan is coming back from missing 2025 to shoulder surgery. If they are available it is probably because the Phillies are not optimistic they will come back from those injuries.
RHP Alex Rao, RHP Nathan Karaffa – Rao and Karaffa are semi interesting relief prospects coming back from Tommy John surgery, which is why they might be left available. They offer enough upside that maybe a team finds their past stats interesting enough to take them.