MLB winter meetings: Listen live to the Rule 5 Draft

The main event of the MLB winter meetings as finally arrived as the annual Rule 5 Draft will take place at 9am this morning.

The draft serves as the conclusion to the nearly week long baseball extravaganza that takes place each December, with each team packing up and heading home following the event.

The Rule 5 Draft usually goes by with most clubs not bothering to make selections, whether it be do their 40-man roster already being full or just not having enough interest in any of the available players taking up a spot on the active roster all season.

Teams will draft in the order that they’ll select in the upcoming June draft in 2018, based on how they finished the 2017 season.

For a player to be eligible to be selected, they must not be on the 40-man roster. If a player was drafted or signed when they were 18 or younger, they must have been under contract for at least five years. If a player was drafted or signed when they were 19 or older, they must have been under contract for at least four years.

The Rays have a couple of players eligible, that are projected as likely to being with RHP Burch Smith and C Nick Ciuffo among the names being suggested.

If a player is selected, the team who chose the player will pay his previous team $100K in order to retain his contract rights. The player will then have to remain on the team’s 25 roster throughout the regular season. If the team wishes to keep the player, but option him to the minors, they’d have to first offer the player back to his original team and then place him on waivers.