Braves select four players, lose Gabriel Rodriguez during minor league Rule 5 Draft

While the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft is postponed until the CBA negotiations are done, the minor league portion of the draft was held this afternoon. It is largely true that the minor league Rule 5 draft is just about grabbing some potential lottery ticket types and minor league filler amongst those that are Rule 5 eligible without having to devote a 40 man spot to them.

For their first selection in the Triple-A phase, the Braves took first baseman John Nogowski from the San Francisco Giants. The 28 year old Nogowski was a 34th round pick way back in 2014 by Oakland and moved around quite a bit this past season after a pretty strong track record of hitting in his career in the minors. The Cardinals traded him to the Pirates in early July who then DFAed him in August and released him in September. The Giants then signed him in late September and had him in their organization until the Braves snagged him.

With their next selection, the Braves took Luis De Avila, a lefty pitcher from the Royals organization. The 20 year old reliever posted a 4.99 ERA in 57.2 IP with 64 strikeouts and 24 walks. After that, Atlanta took Allan Winans from the Mets’ Double-A roster. The former 17th round pick is a righty reliever who elicits weak contact pitching off his slider and posted a 1.72 ERA in 47 innings this season with 45 strikeouts and 15 walks.

The Braves were not done, however, as they picked AGAIN in the fourth round, this time from the Marlins as they nabbed RHP Tanner Andrews. Andrews was hurt for most of the 2021 season, but had performed pretty well as a starter and reliever in the previous two seasons.

The Braves lost Gabriel Rodriguez from their low-A roster early in the Rule 5 Draft as Colorado took him with the sixth pick in the draft. Rodriguez is a 22 year old lefty reliever that had a rough start to his career due to injuries, but features a really live fastball. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to know where his pitches are going which explains the 46 walks and 59 strikeouts in 32 innings pitched this season in route to a 8.44 ERA on the season.