The Rule 5 draft is a staple of baseball’s Winter Meetings, the symbolic end of what is often the busiest week of the offseason.
This year has proven to be no exception. After free agents Edwin Diaz, Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso agreed to new contracts in Orlando, Florida, teams gathered to select minor league players who were eligible for the Rule 5 draft after being left unprotected on their organization’s roster.
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Two picks into the draft, the Chicago White Sox raided the Boston Red Sox‘s farm system, selecting 21-year-old right-hander Jedixson Paez.
Paez was ranked as the Red Sox’s No. 19 prospect by MLB Pipeline. He originally signed with Boston for $450,000 out of Venezuela in 2021, a hefty bonus for a teenage prospect.
Since then, Paez has seen his fastball velocity rise to 94 mph on occasion, paired with impeccable control. In 2025, Paez walked three batters and struck out 23 in seven starts with advanced Class-A Greenville of the South Atlantic League.
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Paez was unlikely to crack the pitching staff in Boston anytime soon. The Red Sox opted not to add him to their 40-man roster in November, knowing he was buried on their bullpen depth chart going into 2026.
The rebuilding White Sox had no such qualms about giving a young pitcher a chance to make a major league roster for the first time despite never pitching in a Double-A or Triple-A Game.
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Chicago finished 60-102 last year — a 19-game improvement over their modern-record, 121-loss season of 2024. They haven’t posted a winning record since 2021, and are hopeful to emerge from their rebuilding phase in 2026.
Paez will play a small role in that effort, if he makes the White Sox’s Opening Day roster at all. If he does not, and he’s healthy, Chicago can return Paez to Boston under the rules of the annual draft.
More to come on this story from Newsweek Sports.