REPORT: Anthony Santander’s New Contract Makes Him Another Rule 5 Draft Success Story

Other than the owner’s four-month lockout following the 2021 season, the Rule 5 draft is an annual occurrence since 1920.

Often teams use to it to snag an extra pitcher and see if something can be found and on occasion position players are picked to see if they can make a contribution and become a star.

Anthony Santander is someone who fits that description, especially since he turned a 44-homer season with the Baltimore Orioles into a five-year, $92.5 million free agent with the Toronto Blue Jays, who seemingly had their sights

Among notable players from the early days of the draft was Hack Wilson, who played 172 regular-season games and was 7-for-30 in the 1924 World Series with the New York Giants. After the 1925 season, the Cubs left Wilson unprotected and spent six seasons with the Cubs, where he drove in 159 runs in 1929 and 191 the following season.

In 1955, the most well-known Rule 5 picks was made when the Brooklyn Dodgers left Roberto Clemente unprotected. While the Dodgers won the 1955 World Series and again in 1959 and 1965 following their move to Los Angeles, Clemente blossomed into a star.

In terms of recent picks becoming a star since 1997, Johan Santana blossomed a rule 5 pick, going from the Houston Astros to the Florida Marlins in 1999 and getting traded to the Minnesota Twins the same day in a prearranged deal for a pitcher who posted a 4.66 ERA in Single-A.

Santana debuted with 30 appearances in 2000, did not become a full-time starting pitcher until 2004 though he dominated the Mets in 2002. Santana wound up making about $162 million in a career that was highlighted by Cy Young awards in 2004 and 2006 with the Twins along with a complete game on the penultimate day of the 2008 season and a no-hitter on June 1, 2012.

Santander entered this offseason at about $25 million in earnings since 2018 and will inch closer to Santana’s total. After joining the Orioles in the same way Clemente and Wilson joined their teams, the progression was slower.

He appeared in 46 games in the first two seasons and 176 through the pandemic 2020-season. In Baltimore’s most recent losing season, Santander began showing glimpses of his power potential by hitting 18 in 406 at-bats in 110 and in Baltimore’s run of three straight winning seasons, he helped the team go from 83 wins to consecutive postseason appearances by hitting 105 in the past three seasons.

Santander’s market was slow to develop in comparison to some, notably Tyler O’Neill, whose three-year $49.5 million deal with Baltimore seemed to signal Santander’s looming departure to a bigger contract and a new uniform on a team run by familiar faces in Toronto GM Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro, who first were first involved in signing Santander as an international free agent in 2011 for the Cleveland Guardians.

Santander dealt with elbow injuries for parts of two seasons before emerging as a .290 hitter in low-A ball and drew comparisons to Victor Martinez from former Orioles GM Dan Duquette.

It turns out Duquette was correct in his assessment of Santander, who became one of the highest paid Rule 5 picks in baseball history when the Blue Jays finally landed one of the bigger hitters in the free agent markets after trying and being unsuccessful in pursuits of Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto in each of the previous two winters.

“Anthony is about as good of a fit as we can find,” Atkins told reporters last week at the introductory press conference. “Doing it from both sides of the plate, putting the ball in the seats a regular amount. His ability to do damage on a nightly basis is exactly what we were looking for. He’s a great addition to this lineup.”

Santander might be the amongst the most prominent hitter in rule 5 drafts in the past two decades but not the first to wind up in Toronto.

Before he emerged as “Joey Bats”, Jose Bautista was picked by the Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates following the 2003 season but unlike Santander Baltimore did not keep him for long.

Limited to 11 at-bats in 16 games, the Orioles placed him on waivers and the Tampa Bay Rays claimed him. After 12 at-bats with the Rays, the Kansas City Royals purchased his contract and gave him 25 at-bats before trading him to the Mets, who promptly included him in the deal to the Pirates for Kris Benson.

Bautista played full seasons with the Pirates in 2006 and 2007 and was hitting .242 when the Blue Jays acquired him in Aug. 2008. After a slow start with the Blue Jays, Bautista led the AL with 54 homers in 2010 and 43 in 2011 and slugged 288 homers in a decade with the Blue Jays and wound up making about $104 million in a 15-year career.

Others include Dan Uggla and Shane Victorino.

Uggla was picked by the Marlins from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005 made the first of three All-Star teams as a rookie for a surprising 78-win team under then novice manager Joe Girardi. He wound up producing five 30-homer seasons in a 10-year career where he earned about $75 million.

Marlins Ugglas Homers Baseball

Victorino was picked by the San Diego Padres in 2002, played a handful games before being returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He was left unprotected after the 2004 season and plucked by the Philadelphia Phillies where he began an eight-year run highlighted by a World Series title in 2008 and a National League title in 2009.

Victorino also won a title with the 2013 Boston Red Sox in the first year of a three-year deal and fell one game shy of 1,300 regular-season appearances while hitting .275 and making about $65 million in career earnings.

Phillies Braves Baseball

Santander and the examples of Bautista, Uggla and Victorino reflect the benefits of the Rule 5 draft as something that gives young players chances to reach the majors earlier than usual and their new teams opportunities to see if they find a core piece to their rosters, though in Bautista’s case it took a few years of bouncing around before emerging as a star for the Blue Jays.