This December's Rule 5 draft takes place tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. and the Phillies have two of the first seven picks. I think the Phillies may take one, if not two players. With the Phillies' stated desire for a right-handed center fielder, they may get that player tomorrow in the draft.
Eligible to be drafted is Cubs minor-leaguer Jae-Hoon Ha. Cubs upper-management Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have stockpiled prospects to the point they cannot protect them all. That works to the Phillies' advantage.
Ha plays center field and bats from the right side. A non-drafted free agent from Korea, Ha has a futures game to his credit in 2012 and was ranked the Cubs #12 prospect heading into 2013. Ha began 2013 in AA and moved up to AAA after 28 games.
One knock on Ha was that he needed to get on base more. Ha was off to a great start at AA, reaching base at a .384 clip. After his promotion to AAA, however, he got on base at just an average of .288. Nonetheless, the Phillies may take a shot.
With the Phillies unlikely to find a defensive, right-handed center fielder on the free agent market, they could take Ha in the Rule 5 draft and decide during Spring Training if he is a better option than John Mayberry. If so, the Phillies can cut Mayberry and be responsible for just 30 days salary. If not, the Phillies could retain Mayberry and offer Ha back to the Cubs.
