Deyvison De Los Santos Lost to Guardians in Rule 5 Draft

The Diamondbacks minor league slugger was plucked by Cleveland and will need to stay on their active roster the entire season

The Diamondbacks lost slugging infielder Deyvison De Los Santos to the Cleveland Guardians today in the Major League Portion of the Rule 5 Draft.  Each year players that meet certain eligibility criteria and are not on a team's 40-man roster can be selected off by another organization for the nominal fee of $100,000. There is a catch however, as Michael McDermott explained yesterday. 

A player selected in the MLB portion of the Rule 5 Draft must spend the entire season on the active roster for the claiming team, and a minimum of 90 days to avoid the same restrictions the following season if needed to be placed on the injured list. Should a team need to remove a Rule 5 player from their roster, they must be passed through outright waivers then be offered back to the original team for $50K. If the original team elects to not take back the player, then he could stay with his new organization and outrighted to the minors. 

De Los Santos, who hails from the Dominican Republic, was the No. 15 prospect in the D-backs organization as ranked by McDermott. He was signed as an international free agent in July 2019 and began playing for the organization in rookie ball at the age of 18 in 2021.  He put up big numbers in the lower minors in 2021 and 2022 hitting for both average and power.  In 2021 he hit .295 with an .859 OPS, including 26 extra base hits in 227 at bats. He was even better in 2022, batting .306 with 22 homers and 106 RBI.  The one major issue was his plate discipline, as he racked up 214 strikeouts against just 60 walks over those two seasons.

Upon reaching  Double-A Amarillo in 2023 his progress stalled out. Through June 30th he was batting just .207 with a whopping 70 strikeouts and only 19 walks in 268 plate appearances.  After spending some time at the team's complex at Salt River Fields to work on his swing selection his results improved. From July 1st onward, he hit .322 with 14 homers. The swing-and-miss and lack of walks continued to be red flags however, as he struck out 59 more times while walking just six. 

D-backs general manager Mike Hazen spoke immediately after the draft and expressed his disappointment in losing De Los Santos. Last night he indicated that he thought it was likely he might lose a player however.  Today he could only wish him well.  "We love the kid, he's got really good tools, and this is a good opportunity for him" Hazen said.

Some raised an eyebrow when De Los Santos was left unprotected from the draft. Had the team placed him on the 40-man roster then he could not have been taken. Hazen addressed this, "It's the calculated risk for us,  it's the challenge for a position player to carve your way at this level. But he's got 80 raw power."

De Los Santos was projected to return to Amarillo to start the season. Without seeing the progress in the swing decisions and plate discipline it was difficult to project him playing in the major leagues in 2024.  It's impossible to say had he started in Double-A this year he would have progressed enough to be promoted to Triple-A where he would be considered major league depth.  At that point he would be tying up a roster spot making it more difficult to maneuver for a pitcher mid season, where the needs are usually greater.  

"Double-A is the area on the Roster that gets tricky" Hazen said.  "If they stay in Double-A too long and don't become major league depth and you're trying to compete it becomes a burdensome spot that you can't move on your roster." 

As explained above, sometimes in cases like this the player doesn't stick in the majors and will end up back with his original organization. Hazen said that it's happened many times before and in this case "That's the more likely outcome, the guy that sticks is the [exception]" Typically teams that are trying to demote a player off their active major league roster will attempt to make a trade rather than return the player, but sometimes they just end up back on waivers without that trade attempt. 

One aspect that needs to be mentioned is the offensive environment in Amarillo. The Texas League is one of, if not the most, hitter-friendly leagues, and Amarillo is the most hitter-friendly environment in that league. That creates massively inflated numbers which can mask a lot of underlying problems for a hitter.  Hazen addressed this as well. "The challenge for us with position players is in those environments in Amarillo and Reno it's really hard for us to pin down the true offensive profile. And if it's not built on plate discipline, on base, it's complicated."

Ultimately this came down to a player that has a major tool with 80 power, but is simply too unrefined to tie up a roster spot for a team trying to compete and get back to the playoffs. In Hazen's estimation, he was not a player they wanted tying up a roster spot in Triple-A either. Of course the Guardians are trying to compete too, and they feel he's worth a major league roster spot, at least for now. 

Rule 5 Draft Could Be Painful for D-backs This Year