The Guardians chose to protect four players last month from today’s Rule 5 draft, which takes place at 2 p.m.

As a reminder, Rule 5 specifies 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 chose to protect :

Angel Genao, SS, 21 years old, Double-A.

Kahlil Watson, LHH CF, 22 years old, Triple-A.

Austin Peterson, RHP, 26 years old, Triple-A in 2025.

Yorman Gomez, RHP, 23 years old, Double-A.

Here are the players I think could most likely be selected in the draft:

Wuilfredo Antunez, LHH OF, 23 years old.

Antunez split his time between High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron last season, but what really stood out was the fact that he had a higher wRC+ for the 30 games he played in Akron after being promoted, slashing an impressive .301/.333/.528 with 18 total home runs in 101 games played. Antunez also played well in the Arizona Fall League, blasting a pair of home runs in two games. It’s unlikely a team takes a shot on him, but Anthony Santander hadn’t even made it to Double-A and he ended up getting snagged by Baltimore in 2016.

Steven Perez, LHrP, 24 years old

Perez has been in Cleveland’s system since 2018, originally signing as an international free agent out of Venezuela. His progress was extremely slow at first, still spending his entire 2023 season in the Arizona Complex League, his sixth year as a professional. He finally broke out in 2024, advancing to High-A while striking out over 11 batters per nine innings and he was sensational this past season, cutting his walk rate in half and making it to Double-A while sporting a 1.83 ERA over 69.0 innings pitched. I could see a team taking a shot on him, especially due to the fact that he’s a southpaw.

Trenton Denholm, RHP, 26 years old

Denholm has quietly risen through the ranks as a starting pitcher in Cleveland’s system, putting up decent numbers at every level. He finally made it to Triple-A at the end of last season and then he pitched in the Arizona Fall League, where he debuted a knuckleball he’d been working on. – 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. In 12.2 innings in the AFL, he struck out 16 batters with a 2.57 ERA, although his WHIP was ugly at 1.97. Pitchers who use knuckleballs are rare, so a team could try to grab him as a change of pace.

Dylan DeLucia, RHP, 25 years old

DeLucia got a bit of a late start to his pro career due to recovering from Tommy John surgery, but he’s impressed at every level thus far. He dominated in 2024 and actually pitched better after earning a promotion to Double-A this past season, sporting a 3.19 ERA in 13 starts spanning 62 innings. One of the main drawbacks is his decreasing strikeout rate, which dropped to a career-low 7.55 per nine innings at Akron.

Jake Miller, RHP, 25 years old

A 20th round selection in the 2021 MLB Draft, Miller broke out this past season out of the bullpen at Double-A, dominating opposing hitters to the tune of a 2.17 ERA and 2.79 FIP over 49 innings with an elite 0.91 WHIP. He earned a promotion to Triple-A, where all of his numbers got worse, but I still think his extremely strong first 3/4 of the season could make him a poaching target for opposing franchises this year.

I don’t especially think Cleveland will lose any players in the Rule 5 Draft this year, but stranger things have happened. No top prospects were left exposed and I think most teams have better options available from other systems for selecting any players. If anyone is selected, my guess would be Denholm, especially after his intriguing AFL performance.