40 Man Shuffle

Tuesday, November 20 2007 @ 12:15 PM EST

Contributed by: Pistol

After a visit to the Hardball Times I saw that today was the deadline to finalize the 40 man roster for this year's class. The Jays 40 man roster is currently full.

As you may recall there were changes in the CBA a year ago that gave teams another year to keep players in the minor without the need to add them to the 40 man roster. A snippet from BA:

The major league portion of the Rule 5 draft will be affected by giving teams one extra year to protect players from it.

Rather than teams being allowed three years (for players signed at age 19 or older) or four years (for players 18 and younger) before leaving them off the 40-man roster subjects them to the Rule 5 draft, those periods have been lengthened to four and five.

I believe that the 2004 and 2003 draft class now needs to be protected or exposed to the Rule 5 draft (the change in the CBA made it a double year this year).

From the 2004 class I believe only David Purcey would be protected. He's always been considered to have excellent stuff, but doesn't always harness it. However, he's coming off an excellent AFL campaign. Thigpen, Lind, Litsch and Janssen are already on the 40 man roster from this draft class.

I don't expect them to be added to the 40 man roster, but I think some consideration would be given to Mike MacDonald, Kyle Yates, and Aaron Mathews.

From 2003 Aaron Hill, Shaun Marcum and Josh Banks are already on the 40 man roster. I can't see anyone else from that draft that would be a consideration.

So who might be removed? In no particular order: Ryan Houston, Jean Machi, Davis Romero, Ty Taubenheim, Tracy Thorpe, Russ Adams, Joe Inglett and Rey Olmedo.

If I were to guess I'd say the Jays would add Purcey and drop Inglett. If they were to sign a free agent catcher or another backup infielder/outfielder they'd have to free up another spot or two. I'd be surprised if a player was selected by the Jays in the Rule 5 draft.

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