The following article appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal on July 29 – you can read it by clicking here.
If, as Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore so often says, pitching is the currency of baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays are going to some awful great lengths to acquire some. And they are doing it at the expense of the Royals.
Every offseason, without any fanfare, a draft is held in which certain players who are left off their teams’ 40-man major league roster, are eligible. This rule applies to players at least 23 years of age with four or more professional seasons under their belts, or players at least 22 with five or more seasons logged.
Thus unprotected, they are eligible to be selected by another team in what is known as the Rule 5 Draft. The only stipulation is that the drafted player must stay with his new major league club for the entire season. The cost of the selection is $100,000.
As stated above, this applies to players at least 22 years of age, except in a few rare cases. One such anomaly this past offseason happened to be an 18-year-old Royals prospect named Elvis Luciano.
Acquired by Kansas City from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a trade for Jon Jay in the middle of the 2018 season, Luciano had never pitched above the rookie leagues. Signed as a 16-year-old in 2016, he pitched in a total of 16 games at the lowest levels possible in the Diamondbacks’ system in 2017.
Recognizing his raw potential, the Royals asked that Luciano be included in the trade for Jay that also netted them pitcher Gabe Speier. Still just 18, the Royals brought the Dominican-born right-hander along slowly in 2018, using him in just 13 games at their rookie league level.
The Royals hoped to nurture the teenager into a hurler in the mold of the late Dominican star Yordano Ventura. But there was one catch. His original minor-league deal with Arizona was voided after he failed a physical at age 16. He reworked a second deal, but the technicality exposed him to the Rule 5 Draft from day one.
But no team would draft an 18-year-old in the Rule 5 Draft, knowing he would have to stay on the major league roster, right?
Apparently the Blue Jays so prize the talents of young Luciano that they believed he was worth the risk. Luciano has spent the entire season as the youngest player in the majors.
“That’s incredible,” said Brad Keller, whom the Royals claimed in the previous’ Rule 5 Draft. “I felt like the jump from Double A to the big leagues was pretty big. I can’t imagine going from rookie ball to the big leagues.”
The Blue Jays had to answer for why they would even consider putting a player so obviously unprepared on their big league roster.
“Elvis is an exciting young arm that we’ve done a lot of work on and feel that any time you can acquire someone who has the chance to be a Major League starting pitcher, or a significant chance to be that, based on our projections, based on our scout looks,” Toronto general manager Ross Atkins told MLB.com at the time.
“The work that we did on him, these types of attributes are hard to acquire,” Atkins said of Luciano. “The age, there are pluses and minuses to that. The pluses are the upside, the very high ceiling. The minuses are the risk and the unknown in how little he has pitched.”
Keller was one of the rare cases where a Rule 5 Draft pick actually turned into a frontline player. Keller shocked the league when he proved an excellent option out of the bullpen, then was elevated to a starter midseason. Keller finished his rookie year with a 9-6 record and a 3.08 ERA.
Keller was thrown directly into the flames in 2018. The Royals had to find out if he was worth keeping or not. Luciano has been spared such a baptism by fire. The Blue Jays have used him sparingly, and only in low-pressure situations. Still, Keller recognizes what a tall order the young man faces.
“All the power to him,” Keller said. “I’d just say keep your head down and learn as much as possible during the time you’re there, and soak in the moment of just getting to be in the big leagues.
The Blue Jays have found a loophole to protect Luciano even further. On June 12, they placed him on the injured list, and he’s stayed there. The Blue Jays will hide the “injured” teenager there for the maximum of 60-days. By rule, he has to be active for at least 90 days. So the Blue Jays will activate him in mid-August for a few weeks, and he will almost certainly be sent to the minor leagues next year.
Luciano will still be nursing his purported injury when the Blue Jays visit Kansas City July 29-31, thus missing his only chance to face his former employer.
“Its part of the business, part of the way things work,” said Keller of the strange route of young Luciano. “But you can try to enjoy every moment while you’re there. And if you learn all you can while you’re there, then maybe it won’t be such a long road to get back if you are sent down next year. For him, my advice would be just learn as much as you can, so that the whole time you’re in the minors you’ll already know what it takes to be in the big leagues.”