Padres make 40-man roster moves to protect key prospects from Rule 5 Draft

While the San Diego Padres' farm system isn't what it used to be, there is still a bit of interesting depth to it. Sure, guys like Ethan Salas and Leo De Vries get all the attention, but the Padres have a good eye for young talent with upside and have been judiciously backfilling their minor league ranks with such prospects even with all of the promotions and trades.

When you have that depth of talent, it can create some issues this time of year when teams have to figure out who they are going to protect from the impending Rule 5 draft. The Padres didn't necessarily have any can't-miss prospects that were vulnerable this year, but they did have some Rule 5 eligible prospects on the pitching side who could feasibly fit into their 2025 plans.

Padres protect pitchers Omar Cruz, Ryan Bergert, and Henry Baez from Rule 5 Draft

Right before the 3 PM PST deadline for teams to add any Rule 5 eligible prospects to the 40-man roster, the Padres ultimately landed on protecting left-handed pitcher Omar Cruz, and right-handers Ryan Bergert and Henry Baez

Cruz and Baez were pretty easy decisions for the Padres as both are highly regarded prospects in their own right. Baez is universally regarded as a top 10 prospect in San Diego's farm system with a fastball, slider, splitter mix and had been pounding the strike zone much better this season. Baez just posted a 2.99 ERA between high-A and Double-A.

Cruz fits the mold of a guy that would have likely been picked in the Rule 5 Draft. A lefty reliever with a nasty changeup with a track record at Triple-A of missing bats, he could easily factor into San Diego's bullpen plans in 2025 and is honestly probably better than most of the reliever options available on the free agent market anyways.

As for Bergert, his stock overall went in the wrong direction in 2024 despite having bright spots here and there. However, he was very highly thought of by the Padres and they were willing to take a risk picking him in the draft despite having elbow surgery and they still clearly think he has more good baseball ahead of him with this roster move.

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