Kemmer, Martin available in Rule 5 draft
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Corner outfielders Jon Kemmer and Jason Martin are the two best Astros minor leaguers at risk of being selected by another team in Thursday morning’s Rule 5 draft.
The draft, scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., annually marks the end of baseball’s winter meetings. Players selected must stick on their new team’s 25-man major league roster for the entire next season, or else they are offered back to their previous team.
The draft order is dictated by last season’s regular-season standings in reverse, so the Detroit Tigers will select first. The Astros, who pick 28th, are highly unlikely to make a selection in the major league phase.
Kemmer, who was also left unprotected last year, has been in the Astros’ organization since he was selected in the 21st round of the 2013 draft. The 27-year-old lefthandedhitting outfielder has spent each of the last two seasons in Class AAA. Last season he batted .299 with a .932 OPS in 304 at-bats. A broken hand ended his season in August.
Martin, who also bats lefthanded, was an eighthround pick of the Astros in 2013. The 22-year-old advanced to Class AA last season. In 300 Texas League at-bats, he batted .273 with an .802 OPS.
In last year’s Rule 5 Draft, the Astros lost righthander Mike Hauschild to the Texas Rangers. Hauschild was returned to the Astros in April.
“Every year, we brace ourselves to lose somebody,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “We don’t always lose the guy we were expecting to lose. But it’s part of the process.
“I’ve said this before: It’s one thing to lose someone in the Rule 5 Draft; it’s another thing to lose them for the whole year. But we’ve had that, too. We had that with Delino DeShields (in 2014), and it’s happened to us. We’ll survive. I hope our guys don’t get selected, but it’s good for them sometimes if they do.”
Martes at mercy of pen additions
Francis Martes will either serve as a reliever in the Astros’ bullpen or a starter in their Class AAA rotation in 2018. The 22-year-old righthander’s role will partially depend on how many relievers the team adds this winter.
“Part of it depends on what we get done between now and the beginning of the year as far as the pitching staff goes,” general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “But he’s a guy who could go to Triple A and be in the rotation there. He could be part of our bullpen in the big leagues. I don’t see him being a starter in the big leagues this next year unless there are a few injuries.”
Starting in Class AAA seems the most likely route. Martes made only eight starts in the Pacific Coast League before he was called up to the Astros amid a rash of injuries last June. In 541⁄3 major league innings, he had a 5.80 ERA with 69 strikeouts against 31 walks. He made four starts and 28 relief appearances.