Twins’ Rule 5-eligible prospects: Who needs to be added to the 40-man roster?

Nov. 14 is this year’s deadline to add prospects to the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 draft, which takes place on Dec. 6 as part of MLB’s Winter Meetings.

The draft is intended to prevent teams from hoarding talent in the minors, so each year a new set of prospects age into being Rule 5-eligible and must be protected with a 40-man roster spot or left available to be drafted. Picking a player in the major-league portion of the Rule 5 draft costs $100,000 and they have to remain on the new team’s major-league roster for the entire season or be offered back to the original team for $50,000.

Players added to the 40-man roster now can’t simply be removed once the Rule 5 draft is over, which means teams wanting to preserve precious spots for future use have difficult calls to make. Most teams protect a handful of new prospects by adding them to the 40-man roster each offseason. This year, the Minnesota Twins have two obvious additions to make, along with a bunch of tougher calls.

Here are the 10 most prominent Twins prospects eligible for the Rule 5 draft if they aren’t added to the 40-man roster by Nov. 14.

Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF

Knee surgery cost Emmanuel Rodriguez the second half of 2022 and he got off to a brutal start this season at High A, hitting .163 in April and May. And then he went on a four-month heater, batting .261/.420/.507 with 33 extra-base hits, 75 walks and 18 steals in his final 78 games. And he did all of that as a 20-year-old, facing pitchers older than him in 453 of 455 plate appearances.

High strikeout rates and a career .242 batting average are possible red flags, but Rodriguez’s ultra-disciplined approach is extremely rare for such a young hitter and he combines it with 30-homer power and above-average speed. Signed for $2.5 million as a 16-year-old, Rodriguez has cemented his status as a consensus top-100 prospect and ranks No. 3 in the Twins’ farm system. He’s a must-add.

Austin Martin, 2B/OF

Acquired in mid-2021 as the headline prospect in the José Berríos trade, Austin Martin’s stock dropped when he followed a mediocre 2022 season at Double A by spending the first half of 2023 rehabbing from a spring elbow injury. He had to shake off some rust after joining the Triple-A lineup in early July, but Martin hit .300/.428/.473 with 29 walks and 15 steals in his last 44 games for St. Paul.

Martin’s power hasn’t developed as hoped since he was drafted No. 5 in 2020, but his speed, on-base skills and defensive versatility make him a sure-fire big leaguer and a no-brainer Rule 5 protection. He could play a prominent role for the Twins as soon as mid-2024, profiling best in a super-utility role or as their long-term answer in center field.

DaShawn Keirsey, OF

Speed and defense have always been DaShawn Keirsey’s biggest strengths, but the late-blooming 2018 fourth-round pick made massive strides offensively this year to change his long-term outlook. Keirsey hit .294/.366/.455 with 39…