Colorado Rockies Lose Josh Rutledge Through Rule 5 Draft

One of the things that can happen during the annual Rule 5 draft during baseball’s winter meetings is that a team can lose players that it hasn’t protected. That’s exactly what happened to the Colorado Rockies on Thursday morning.

Two weeks after signing Josh Rutledge to a minor league deal, the Rockies lost him through the Rule 5 draft when he was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the major league phase of the draft. For a rundown of the rules of the sometimes confusing Rule 5 draft, click here to check out our comprehensive overview.

As expected, the Rockies passed on their selection in the Rule 5 draft but then lost Rutledge 15 picks later when he was picked by the Red Sox.

Ironically, Rutledge goes from the team where he started his career (Colorado) to the last team he played for before a knee injury cut his 2016 season short (Boston).

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In November, rather than accept an assignment to Triple-A with the Red Sox, Rutledge elected to pursue free agency. That set up his short-lived reunion with the Rockies.

Rutledge was expected to give the Rockies depth in the infield but now it looks like that’s exactly why they lost him to the Red Sox. With Boston looking for infield depth with Major League experience, Rutledge was a familiar target.

Colorado had protected five pitchers (Yency Almonte, Shane Carle, Rayan Gonzalez, Zach Jemiola and Sam Moll) from possible Rule 5 draft poaching by adding them to the 40-man roster in November.

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With the movement of those five pitchers to the 40-man roster, Colorado entered the winter meetings with 37 of the 40 spots filled. One of those spots will be filled by Ian Desmond, who the Rockies signed to a five-year, $70 million contract on Wednesday.

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