The MLB Rule 5 draft is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, December 10, at 2 p.m. EST during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida.

In the 2024 Rule V draft, the Mets selected nobody but lost two players—Mike Vasil to the Phillies and Nate Lavender to the Rays. Vasil would wind up playing for the White Sox and pitched in 47 games, striking out 82 in 101 innings while walking 52 to the tune of a 2.50 ERA. Nate Lavender, who was recovering from Tommy John surgery, did not pitch at all in 2025 and was returned to the Mets this offseason when the Rays declined to keep him on their 40-man roster.

Photo by Ed Delany of Metmerized

In the minor league phase, the Mets lost pitchers Joseph Yabbour, Nolan Clenney, Landon Marceaux, Jawilme Ramirez and Hobie Harris, infielder Junior Tilien, and catcher Drake Osborn,

In the minor league portion, the Mets selected right-handed pitcher Michael Hobbs from the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had a 2.97 ERA in 57 2/3 innings in 42 Double-A relief appearances at the time of his drafting in 2024. The Mets would trade him to Seattle in March 2025 for cash considerations.

The Mets’ most recent Rule 5 Draft success was lefty Sean Gilmartin, who went on to play a key role in the 2015 bullpen. In 2019, they drafted righty Adam Oller in the minor league portion and later used him in the package to acquire veteran pitcher Chris Bassitt from the A’s.

Rule 5 Draft Rules

Before we look at the available players in the Rule 5 Draft and the players the Mets didn’t protect, let’s go through the draft rules.

Teams must have open space on their 40-man roster to make a selection in the Rule 5 Draft. They can make as many selections as they have open spots and the draft order is based on record.
The drafting team must pay the player’s original team $100,000.
The player must stay on the 26-man roster for the whole season.
If the drafting team wants to remove the player from the active roster, they are placed on waivers. If not claimed, they are offered back to the original team for $50K. If they clear waivers and the original team doesn’t want them back for that price, they can then be sent to the minors by the team that drafted them.
A Rule 5 pick can be placed on the MLB injured list, but he must be on the active roster for 90 days to avoid the aforementioned roster restrictions during the next season.
Teams can trade drafted players, and the roster restrictions stay the same.
The drafting team can also work out a trade with the player’s original team to acquire his full rights, thus allowing them to option him to the minors without roster restrictions.
Players that need to be added to the 40-man roster to protect from Rule 5 Draft: players signed at 18 or younger who have spent five seasons in the minors or players signed at 19 or older who have spent four seasons in the minors

Players the Mets Could Lose

The Mets added one player to their 40-man roster to protect them from Rule 5: outfielder Nick Morabito, who had a .273/.348/.385 slash line spending the 2025 season in Binghamton while hitting six home runs, 59 RBI and stealing 49 bases.

RHPs Calvin Ziegler and Saul Garcia were mentioned by Baseball America as two pitchers who could appeal to teams looking for bullpen arms.

Ziegler, who the Mets drafted out of high school in the second round, has seen his career derailed by various injuries, allowing him to throw 53 2/3 professional innings. Due to his injuries, he hasn’t had time to develop a third pitch, but if he can get healthy, he could have potential as a relief arm.

Saul Garcia went to another level this year when the Mets converted him from a starter to a reliever, allowing his average velocity to play up in shorter appearances and his slider to generate plenty of whiffs outside of the zone. Garcia does have some control issues, but a fastball/slider pitcher with some success in Double-A and an ability to miss bats is always in demand.
LHP Felipe De La Cruz has gotten more experience as a reliever in the last year but has experience as a starter. De La Cruz has great stuff but has struggled with his control, so much so that the Mets didn’t call him up at any point in the 2025 season. While lefties who throw hard don’t grow on trees, ones who walk nearly six batters per every nine innings are hard to keep on a 40-man roster.
Kevin Parada could be on some teams’ radars as a bat-first catcher. Parada was drafted in the first round of the 2022 MLB draft and, after some early success, has struggled. His 2025 season in Double-A was his best professional season, which saw him slash .245/.319/.407 with 10 home runs. Parada has done less to silence some of the questions about his glove, and he did struggle in a late-season call-up to Triple-A.
RHP Douglas Orellana had an excellent season with Double-A Binghamton, with a 1.64 ERA in 33 innings, striking out 46 and walking 13. However, his promotion to Triple-A Syracuse saw his control regress, walking and striking out 17 in 18 2/3 innings.

Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Some other notable names include

Players the Mets Could Draft

We will look into a few players who could interest the Mets but if you are interested in finding out about the full range of players with potential to be drafted, refer to the Baseball America piece that dives much deeper.

RJ Petit, RHP Tigers

Petit was drafted in the 14th round by the Detroit Tigers and has shown some success at Double and Triple-A. Petit throws a mid-90s fastball, a low-90s two-seamer, and a pitch defined as a slider but with a movement profile that shows it not dropping and with limited sweep. Pitches that aren’t seen often allow managers to deploy relievers with different looks, which is important in this Fastball/Slider world. The 6’8″ righty also clocks in at around 300 pounds, so he gets all he can out of his massive frame.

Jared Southard, RHP, Angels

Southgard was a 12th-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Angels and uses a sinker that gets into the mid-90ss with the ability to spin two breaking balls, allowing him to keep the ball on the ground at a stellar 56.4% rate. Add in an average walk rate and he could prove useful in an MLB bullpen

Griff McGarry, RHP, Phillies

McGarry went unprotected for the second year in a row, and despite his outstanding stuff, extremely high extension and all of his pitches grading above-average to plus, his inability to throw strikes is holding him back. A team could take a flyer on him and hope for a short-inning role to deal with the caveats of a wild pitcher who will strike out a bunch of batters.

Will Bednar, RHP, Giants

Will, the younger brother of David Bednar, has big control issues but gets 18-19 inches of cut and ride on his fastball and pairs it with a slider and a splitter. The Toronto Blue Jays showed in the playoffs how difficult it can be to go up against teams that utilize the splitter.

Ryan Webb, LHP, Guardians

Ryan Webb is Rule 5 eligible for the second consecutive year, and he is a true pitcher, utilizing a five-pitch arsenal to keep hitters off balance. While he won’t wow anyone with velocity or movement, he has value as a swingman with some success at Triple-A.

Other arms who could get drafted:

RHP Yordanny Monegro, Red Sox
RHP Carter Baumler, Orioles
RHP Jose Rodriguez, Dodgers
RHP Logan Workman, Rays
RHP Blake Burkhalter, Braves
RHP Harrison Cohen, Yankees
RHP Blake Holub, Brewers
LHP Pete Hansen, Cardinals
RHP Grant Kipp, Cubs
LHP Jack Choate, Giants

Some of the position players who could get drafted:

Former Met Tyler Stuart is eligible with the Nationals declining to put him on the 40-man roster. Stuart missed a fair amount of time for the 2025 season, only pitching 35 2/3 innings and not exhibiting his usual above-average control. With limited experience above Triple-A, any team drafting the 6’9″ righty would be hoping to keep him healthy and utilize him in a swingman role as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.