The Rule 5 draft will be held in December, giving teams a chance to pluck diamonds in the rough from other organizations. Teams can protect eligible players by placing them on the 40-man roster by late November. Players are eligible after four seasons in the minors if they signed at age 19 or later, or after five seasons if they signed younger than age 19. That means this year, the college draftees from 2022 become eligible, while all signees from 2021 and before are eligible.

The Royals currently have a full 40-man roster, although after the World Series they have four free agents who will come off the roster – Adam Frazier, Hunter Harvey, Luke Maile, and Mike Yastrzemski. They will pick up Salvador Perez’s club option, but have decisions to make on mutual options for Michael Lorenzen an

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