The 24-year-old Nuñez, acquired for Jorge López, has yet to pitch above High-A.
In past eras of the Orioles, the Rule 5 draft was one of the staples of the offseason calendar, with both Mike Elias and his predecessor Dan Duquette often using the draft to try to pluck less heralded minor leaguers straight to the majors and see what would happen. That’s been the pattern, but for the second straight year the O’s went through the Rule 5 draft without making a selection.
This year, the Orioles did lose a player to someone else. Pitching prospect Juan Nuñez, who was part of the trade return two years ago for Jorge López, was not added to the 40-man roster and he was chosen by the Padres in the draft. Nuñez just turned 24 years old last week but he’s yet to pitch above the High-A level across four professional seasons. He only appeared in seven games in 2024 and did not pitch after May due to a shoulder injury.
If you go by the MLB Pipeline prospect ranking, Nuñez was the #8 prospect in the Orioles system. I think that’s likely outdated information and while Nuñez is a guy who had some potential, his lack of action this season combined with his age and not reaching Double-A yet really hurts his possibility of contributing to the O’s or anybody else.
Players who became eligible for the Rule 5 draft this year are, broadly, those who were selected from the high school ranks in 2020, or college in 2021. Nuñez became eligible this year since he was older than the typical international signing – age 20 in his first pro season. Teams had to add their eligible prospects to the 40-man roster by a mid-November deadline to keep them safe from the draft. The Orioles opted to add starting pitcher Brandon Young and reliever Kade Strowd, leaving their other players exposed to the draft.
A team in the right position can manage to make a player jump from lower levels up to MLB. Earlier in Mike Elias’s tenure, the Orioles did this when they selected Tyler Wells, then with the Twins, ahead of the 2021 season. Wells, at the time of his Rule 5 draft, had all of six Double-A games under his belt. The Orioles managed to keep him around in the bullpen for that 2021 season before having him in the rotation since.
Now that the Padres have selected Nuñez, they will be committed to keeping him on their major league roster for all of next season in order to acquire his rights. If they don’t do this, then they will have to offer him back to the Orioles for $50,000, which is half the price of making a Rule 5 pick.
There are injured list loopholes that can extend this into multiple seasons, which the Orioles once utilized with the freshly-departed free agent Anthony Santander to keep him around even though he didn’t satisfy the roster time within one season. There are success stories, but most energy spent talking about the Rule 5 draft is not worth it.
There’s also a minor league phase to the Rule 5 draft, which is generally even less worth your energy than the MLB portion. With that understood, the Orioles got raided hard in this area of the draft, as six minor leaguers were selected by different organizations.
First, pitchers Tyler Burch and Dan Hammer were selected away from the O’s. Burch was picked by the Rockies, with Hammer taken by the Rays. If you have ever in your life thought about either Tyler Burch or Dan Hammer before right now, you’re probably an absolute Orioles sicko.
Slightly less sicko if you’ve heard of outfielder John Rhodes, who the Orioles also lost in this minor league phase to the Dodgers. Rhodes, an overslot signing as a sophomore in the third round in 2021, is a 24-year-old outfielder who stalled out once he hit Double-A and has been passed by players drafted after him.
The Astros plucked pitcher Jean Pinto out of the system. Pinto was acquired when the Orioles shipped Jose Iglesias to the Angels ahead of the 2021 season. He’ll turn 24 before next season and he had some success at High-A before reaching Double-A. However, that was two seasons ago now as Pinto did not pitch this year following Tommy John surgery.
Righty Zach Peek, once part of the Dylan Bundy trade return, was selected by the Brewers. Peek, now 26, has only thrown 26.1 innings in the last two seasons. As with all of these other guys, it will be a huge surprise if there is any regret about losing them.
Last, outfielder Elio Prado, whose tenure with the Orioles goes back to when they acquired him for Andrew Cashner in 2019, was picked by the Phillies. Prado is still just 23 years old and is coming off a High-A season where he batted .223/.322/.327.