The Rule V draft liabilities for the Twins

The Rule V Draft is held annually during baseball's Winter Meetings. Teams must file a 40 man roster with the league office by November 20. Any player who fits all of the below criteria is eligible for the Rule V Draft:

• Player is not on the 40 man roster
  
• Player has been in the minor leagues for at least 4 years if he was signed after age 19 (was 3 years before the 2006 CBA).
  
• Player has been in the minor leagues for at least 5 years if he was signed before age 19 (was 4 years before the 2006 CBA).

Any player drafted must stay in the major leagues all season. Before he is sent to the minors, he must be offered back to the club who had his rights for a $25,000 waiver fee.

Often, teams will send a player in lieu of the fee.

Minor league teams can also participate in the draft. AAA teams can draft any player
eligible from AA for $12,000, and AA teams can draft any players that are eligible from A for $4,000. Players chosen in the minor league part of the draft do not need to return to the original teams for any reason.

Here is a list of the Twins eligible for the rule V draft. I am including all players not on the 25 man roster by the end of last season, regardless whether they are in the latest 40-man roster.

Batters:

Daniel Berg
Drew Butera
Toby Gardenhire
@Luke Hughes
Garrett Jones
Ryan Jorgensen#
?Erik Lis
Alejandro Machado
?Matthew Macri#
Felix Molina
?Jose Morales#
Matt Moses
Yancarlos Ortiz
Edward Ovalle
Rodolfo Palacios
?Brock Peterson
?Jason Pridie#
?Trevor Plouffe
Brandon Roberts
?Randy Ruiz#
Danny Santiesteban
Sergio Santos#
Eli Tintor
@?Matt Tolbert#
?Steven Tolleson
Tommy Watkins
Johnny Woodard


Pitchers:

Kyle Aselton
Ricky Barrett
Carmen Cali
Julio DePaula#
?Brian Duensing
?Matthew Fox
?Armando Gabino
?Mariano Gomez
Jose Lugo
?Danny Graves
?Philip Humber#
?Ben Julianel
?Bobby Korecky#
Timothy Lahey
Frank Mata
@Jose Mijares#
Jason Miller
?Ryan Mullins
?Yohan Pino
Jay Sawatski
Tom Shearn
David Shinskie
?Oswaldo Sosa#
?Danny Vais

Notes:

@almost certainly will be protected
?A potential target for Major league or minor league draft if not protected or a minor league free agent if not drafted
#currently on the 40 man roster

Currently, with the free agents Guardado, Punto and Everett assumed leaving, and Neshek returing and occupying a spot, there is one open spot on the 25-man roster, presumably taken by Tolbert. Assuming that Mijares and Hughes are locks to make the 40-man roster, this leaves 13 spots to protect the following players who might be major league or minor league rule V targets:


Ryan Mullins (*)
Yohan Pino (?)
Errol Simonitsch
Oswaldo Sosa (?)
Danny Vais (?)
Danny Graves
Philip Humber (*)
Ben Julianel
Bobby Korecky (?)
Brian Duensing (*)
?Trevor Plouffe (*)
Matthew Fox
Armando Gabino (*)
Mariano Gomez (?)
Steven Tolleson (*)
Randy Ruiz (?)
Brock Peterson (?)
Jason Pridie (*)
Jose Morales (*)
Matthew Macri (*)
Erik Lis (*)

I expect the Twins to protect the 10 players marked with an asterisk and select 3 from the 6 players marked with a (?) to use the 13 remaining spots to fill the 40-man roster. Brock Peterson's move to AAA, made it unlikely that he will be taken in the MLB draft (if left in AA, he and Lis were almost certain to be picked in the AAA part of the draft), so I do not think that he will be added to the 40-man roster

That, said, free agent signings and trades might change the look of the 40 man roster by November. At least this is a good overview of the potential Twins' liability, which does not look too bad.