Consider the 2017 draft as an example of why 1 or 2 spots can make a difference.
Pick 9: Keston Hiura MIL: having a great rookie season
Pick 10: Jo Adell LAA: one of the top prospects in baseball.
Pick 11: Jake Burger
My guess is Mercedes gets added to the 40 man prior to rule 5 in December. Especially with the amount of players like Skole on the 40 man who can easily be removed.
I would think an AL botton feeder team like Baltimore or Detroit would take him in the rule 5 and see if he can be a DH. No reason the Sox shouldn't give him a shot.
I feel like they should make it a snake draft if they are going to do arbitrarily by division. That would at least allow the bottoms teams to pick first in the 2nd round.
Yolbert was #5 on the 2018 international prospect list. I don't understand why people are upset about this signing other than the fact that he is 22. If he ends up being Yolmer 2.0 that is fine as the majority of these guys in the top 30 will never even make it to the major leagues.
I would be curious to know how Elijah compares to his brother at this age.
Sanchez is intriguing as a replacement for Yolmer. Better defensively but not sure about the bat.
How long before we see pitchers wearing face masks ala women's softball? A broken face is bad enough but it could be a lot worse if one of those line drives with 110 + exit velocity hits a pitcher square in the head with no protection.
With the payroll so low next year there is no excuse for not going hard after Cole. I have zero faith Hahn and co. can land him after the Manny debacle last offseason