Teams across Major League Baseball have a pretty important deadline of 4pm ET on Tuesday November 18th. At that time (or prior) they will have to add minor league players to the 40-man roster who have enough minor league service time to be Rule 5 draft eligible in order to keep other teams from selecting them. Anyone left off (who is eligible) could be taken from the organization on December 10th’s in the Rule 5 draft.
Cincinnati currently has 38 players on the 40-man roster. They can change that between now and Tuesday afternoon at 4pm. But given how close we are that seems unlikely. For now, the Reds can only add two players to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. By my count there are 35 players who are eligible, but most of them have zero chance to be taken.
Who is eligible for the Rule 5 Draft?
Any player who signed a professional contract in the 2021 season or earlier. Any player who signed a professional contract in 2022 who was 19-years-old or older at the time they signed.
Who will the Cincinnati Reds protect?
I wrote a bit more in depth on this over at RedsMinorLeagues.com last week, covering the infield, the outfield, and the pitchers (you can see that series here). After writing all of that, I was left with a handful of players with a tiny chance or better to selected if they are left unprotected. Two players feel like locks to be added.
Shortstop Edwin Arroyo and outfielder Hector Rodriguez are almost assuredly going to be added to the roster. Arroyo came over in the same trade that Noelvi Marte did from the Mariners in 2022 that sent Luis Castillo to Seattle. He missed all of 2024 after a shoulder injury in spring training and then spent all of the 2025 season in Double-A Chattanooga. Hector Rodriguez also came over in a trade, but this one was with the Mets in the deal that sent Tyler Naquin to New York at the trade deadline a few years ago.
Arroyo, who is known more for his glove than his bat, hit quite well in 2023. In his return to the field in 2025 he hit for a good average and he showed a good contact rate with Chattanooga, but he only hit three home runs as his power did not return in 2025 after the shoulder injury. That’s not unprecedented. For a lot of guys it’s that second year back from a shoulder injury that the power they showed previously begins to return.
Hector Rodriguez split his season between Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville. One of the youngest players in both leagues, Rodriguez won’t turn 22 until the middle of March 2026. Between his two stops this season he played in 135 games and hit .283/.336/.450 with 19 home runs. The left fielder is only 5′ 10″ tall, but don’t let that fool you. He hits the ball hard despite being a guy who wouldn’t stand out to you in the line at Skyline.
Shortstop Leo Balcazar is a guy that I would probably protect, but I’m not so sure the Reds will. He split his season between High-A Dayton and Chattanooga where he hit .263/.339/.381 with 12 home runs, 52 walks, and 75 strikeouts. He won’t be 22 until the middle of June of 2026. Balcazar has lesser higher level experience, but he’s a guy who can play shortstop, makes a lot of contact, has enough power, hits the ball hard, and showed some big improvements post ACL injury in the 2025 season.
Others to keep an eye on: Utility-man Francisco Urbaez. He’s 28, but he hit .314/.381/.464 in Triple-A this season with 38 walks and just 40 strikeouts in 97 games. Not the prototypical Rule 5 kind of pick, but he could probably help a team looking to fill out their bench. Pitchers Johnathan Harmon, Jared Lyons, and Jose Acuna seem like low-likelihood candidates to be taken, but they’ve all shown enough of something that maybe a team can see where they could toss them into the bullpen in the spring and see what happens for five weeks before having to make a decision on if they will be good enough to keep on the roster all year.
The Wildcard
I do not believe that the Reds will add pitcher Anyer Laureano to the 40-man roster. He missed all of 2025 and in 2024 when he was healthy he pitched in Single-A Daytona. But he is exactly the kind of pitcher that a team could get crazy with. When healthy he touched triple-digits with his fastball and sat in the upper 90’s. His slider was good, but flashed itself as above-average at times.
He’s a long shot to stick to a big league roster all season long. But his specific case can be manipulated, too. He’s coming off of elbow surgery. So a team could select him and keep him at their spring training site/rehab facility and have him pitching and working on things in non-game environments, allowing him to both recover from the injury and develop outside of games. They could get a lot more of a true look at him, and keep him off of the big league roster while doing so.
If you want to look at the stats for every player mentioned here, click on their name below and it will take you to their Baseball Reference page.
