As far as months on the baseball calendar tend to go, August can be one of the longest and most drawn out for minor-league players.
For the personnel in baseball front offices and the scouts in the stands, it can also be the busiest month of the year.
August is the month where most teams begin crafting their offseason agenda, which goes beyond simply dealing with free agents and figuring who to keep and who to let go off the 40-man roster.
It is also time to begin looking at who to add to the 40-man, especially among those minor-league players who fall into the crosshairs of the Rule 5 draft.
The Rule 5 draft was designed to keep teams from hoarding too many players in the minors. It is set up with parallel rules for players drafted or signed at age 18 or younger and those signed/drafted at age 19 or older.
For the younger players, they are eligible after their fifth full season in the minors. For the older ones, they are eligible after their fourth full season.
The stipulation is "full season." Most players sign pro contracts between June and August, often playing in rookie and short-season leagues. Just as these one-to-three-month stints do not count toward a player's full six years needed for free agency, they do not count toward Rule 5 eligibility, either.
So despite a considerable amount of consternation over recently acquired players Tim Federowicz and Stephen Fife, neither is actually Rule 5-eligible this coming offseason. Both have only played three full seasons in the minors, including this year.
The Dodgers have a list that dates back to opening day of who is and is not eligible. Eligible players can either be left on their own, or if they are considered a big part of the club's future, they will have to be added to the 40-man roster to protect them from other teams.
The process of selecting these players covers a vast number of people within the organization, said Dodgers player development director De Jon Watson.
“You have your pro scouts, you also have your player development staff, whether it be the rovers or the coaches for the respective clubs, they make their recommendations," Watson said. "We send out the list of names of guys who are eligible to be added to the roster, it’s actually handed out in spring training, so we want everybody to be able to keep track of where the guys are and how they’re developing.
“Probably the middle of this month, we’ll get together either via conference call or bring everyone together for a meeting to start addressing where we are with these players."
Most of the notable Rule 5-eligibles are at Double-A Chattanooga. They include left-hander Michael Antonini, third baseman Pedro Baez, catcher Griff Erickson, infielder Elian Herrera, right-hander Will Savage, outfielder Alfredo Silverio, first baseman-outfielder Scott Van Slyke and catcher Matt Wallach.
Just missing the cut were outfielder Alex Castellanos, Fife, outfielder Kyle Russell and right-hander Chris Withrow.
The Dodgers may not add all eight of those players, even with guys coming off the roster at season's end. The big-league club has 11 pending free agents, some of whom could be kept, such as Hiroki Kuroda, and others who figure to be gone like Jon Garland. For some who leave, there will have to be new players added to replace them.
Another five players could be in jeopardy of losing their roster spots — Ramon Troncoso, Ivan De Jesus Jr., Russ Mitchell, Trent Oeltjen and Eugenio Velez. Still, there is no guarantee either way that the Dodgers will cut them or keep them.
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