Dunno how I missed this on Monday, but the player to be named in the Brian Bruney trade that the Nats and Yankees completed was actually a nod/wink agreement for the Nats’ top spot in the Rule 5 draft. The Yankees, who are not really in the whole “draft and develop” mentality of the Rule 5, could either be in it to grab someone like Yohan Pino for their bullpen, or they could be, as Jayson Stark is reporting, shopping the pick (which would, if I’m not mistaken, require the Nationals to make the pick, then “trade” him to the Yankees, who would then “trade” him to another team).
I doubt the Yankees would pick Aneury Rodriguez (which is who I’d like to see the Pirates take) themselves, but there would probably be several teams interested if the Yanks were to auction the pick off. This is probably why Huntington seemingly had cooled on making a pick yesterday; if there’s a team that’s picking in the top five spots interested in whoever he’s interested in, he doesn’t want them jumping in line to snag that player.
Hat-tip to Jason from It’s About The Money for the heads up on the real details of the Bruney trade, via Twitter. Winter meeting day 3 updates can be found in the post below.
