Rule 5 Ruler, Richie Martin – Beckett Pricing Insider
This edition of the Beckett Pricing Insider is sponsored by MN Nice Cards.
This past week, the Baltimore Orioles selected 23-year-old Richie Martin with the first pick in the Rule 5 Draft.
For those who don’t know, the Rule 5 Draft is a draft held every December during the Winter Meetings. Instead of selecting players from high schools and colleges, they’re selected from other teams’ farm clubs. These are not usually the top prospects at the time, as teams will protect their most coveted youngsters by placing them on their 40-man rosters.
A lot of the time, they are players who were former top prospects and may have just taken a step back because of injury or a logjam at their position. The goal is to keep teams from hoarding top prospects whom other teams think can have an impact for their Major League squad.
There are a few stipulations that the drafting teams must abide by. First, the drafting team, in this case the Orioles must pay the Oakland Athletics, Martin’s former team, $100,000. Secondly, Martin must stay on the Orioles’ 25-man roster for the entire 2019 season. If the Orioles decide to place him on waivers, they have to offer him back to the A’s for $50,000 before he can be sent to one of the Orioles minor league teams.
Teams with full 40-man rosters are not eligible to select and teams do not have to make a selection. Many decide to pass. Only 14 players were selected in the Major League portion of this year’s draft.
Not all Rule 5 draftees are backups or no-names. Roberto Clemente is the most famous Rule 5 draftee. More recently, perennial All-Stars Jose Bautista and Johan Santana were players who went through the process.
Only time will tell if Richie Martin will end up being a household name. But one can easily see why the Orioles selected him first overall. Originally selected by the Mariners in the 38th round of the 2012 Amateur Draft, Martin instead attended the University of Florida. In 2015, he was the 20th overall selection in the first round by the Oakland Athletics. Noted for his defense, Martin put up a solid year in 2018 for the A’s double-A team in Midland, batting .300 for the season. Oakland, would have probably liked to hold onto him but they simply didn’t have the space.
Surprisingly for someone who has never played in the majors, Martin has over 300 cards in the Beckett database.
Less surprising, one of his most popular cards is from Bowman. His 2015 Bowman Chrome Draft Draft Pick Autographs card can be found for around $5 – $10. This card also includes multiple Refractor parallels.
