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2 Angels prospects in need of protection from the Rule 5 draft this offseason

Make way for the young ones
ByBrian Burrows
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Mar 17, 2026; Mesa, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Angels pitcher Camden Minacci against the Chicago Cubs during a spring training game at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Mar 17, 2026; Mesa, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Angels pitcher Camden Minacci against the Chicago Cubs during a spring training game at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

One of the easily overlooked benchmarks of the offseason is the Rule 5 draft. The draft is set up so that teams can't stash a player in the minors forever. Players are allowed a certain number of years to not be on the 40-man roster (it differs depending on how they entered professional ball and at what age); once they reach that point, teams must put them on the 40-man roster or risk losing them to the Rule 5 draft.

Once the league season officially ends and players who have been on the 60-day IL are added back on (because injury designations don't apply during the offseason), the Angels will have 44 players on their 40-man roster. Some of those players are free agents who the team won't re-sign, and others are players who will be non-tendered, opening up the spots for incoming free agents and spots for players who are Rule 5 eligible to be protected.

2 Angels prospects who should be obvious Rule 5 draft protection priorities

According to FanGraphs Roster Resource tool, the Angels have 13 players who have reached Triple-A and are eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason. Now, only the ones the Angels fear will be drafted by another team, and that they don't care to lose, need to be added, meaning it won't be all 17. Two, though, stand out from the rest.

Nelson Rada is currently the Angels' No. 6 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The 21-year-old is a soft-hitting center fielder. He spent the entire 2026 season in Triple-A, where he hit .278 with a .739 OPS. While he only hit three home runs, he did have 22 doubles and five triples. He also stole 43 bases; in his five minor league seasons, he has 214 swiped bags.

Rada is one of the few prospects the Angels didn't fast-track through the system. He progressed one level each season and then did a year and a half in Triple-A, with only one year, 2024 in Double-A, where he truly struggled. It seems like the Angels will have an opening in center field next season, with Mike Trout requesting a move to left and more time at DH. With a space opening up, and him being a top prospect in the system, it would be odd for them not to protect him.

The other is not a top prospect, but a reliever who could be very impactful. Camden Minacci is a 24-year-old reliever who has only made it to Double-A, but just had a very impressive season. The righty pitched 47 innings last season with a 3.59 ERA, but a 2.59 FIP. He had a strikeout rate of almost 30% and a walk rate around 10%. He held batters to a .219 batting average with a home run per nine of just 0.19.

Minacci features has a fastball that sits in the mid-90s but reaches up to 98, and a power slider that grades out as potentially his best pitch. Some may think it would be odd to protect a player who hasn't even reached AAA, but some teams take chances on relievers with elite stuff, hoping to tweak them and make them effective in the majors. With two good pitches and a bounce-back 2026 season, he's certainly a player another team could try to snag in the draft if he goes unprotected.

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