The Rule 5 draft will take place next Thursday, December 10, on the last day of the winter meetings in Indianapolis. Arizona Phil has a list of Cub players eligible to be drafted–and lost to another team–that he maintains in the right margin of The Cub Reporter website. Of the names on that list, I suspect that Chirinos, Clevenger, Diamond, Lalli, Maestri and Papelbon are the most likely to be drafted. Chirinos would be the biggest loss, a power-hitting catcher with strong defensive skills to go along with years of experience at second and third base. Chirinos is in winter ball in Venezuela, where he maintains a .330 BA and a .957 OPS.
Brad Snyder is not on the list, simply because he is not a Cub any longer. He is a minor league free agent. It’s hard to say for sure why the Cubs did not sign Snyder to a new contract; but if they had, he would have been draftable. Of course, if they really wanted to keep Snyder a Cub, all they had to do was place him on the 40-man roster. Instead, at the deadline last month they added James Adduci to the 40-man. Adduci, like Snyder, is a centerfield and rightfield prospect, and he is coming off a fine season at Tennessee, where he played for Ryne Sandberg, who may have spoken up for him in organizational meetings.
Snyder is still hitting cleanup for Mexicali and still pounding the ball at a .373/.459/.589/1.048 clip. He is a lefty power hitter, but even against lefties he is hitting .371 with a .999 OPS. The picture may be different in a week, and it will certainly look different a year from now, but today there is no overflow of talent in center and right, where we have Fukudome, Bradley and Fuld. This is a good opportunity for Snyder, and he could be good for the Cubs.
He won’t be drafted, in any event. After next Thursday, any team can sign Snyder without adding him to the 40-man for another year. He should have several suitors. Look for the Cubs to sign Snyder quickly after the draft and bring him to spring training. I hope that Chirinos survives the draft and will be able to join Snyder in Mesa.
Thomas Diamond had three sparkling starts for Mexicali in the first part of November, and then he just stopped pitching for some reason. Maybe the Cubs had seen enough and were trying to hide him. Cross your fingers that you don’t see his name in the news next Thursday.
A couple of winter-league notes: Adduci is playing right field and batting second for Hermosillo in the Mexican Pacific league. Starlin Castro has joined Escogido in the Dominican winter league.
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