LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Red Sox lost two minor leaguers in the Rule 5 draft on Thursday morning and chose to pass on each of their selections in the major league phase of the event.
The annual process lets teams pick minor leaguers from other organizations who are left unprotected and who have been in the minors for a specific period of time, depending on what age they were when they signed a contract. Those players must be kept on the selecting team’s 25-man roster for the duration of the upcoming season, or get returned to the original club for a fee. Boston had 42 such players available for others to scoop up.
Lefty Cesar Cabral, a 21-year-old who has been in the system since 2006, was taken in the first round by Tampa Bay. He was 4-0 with 3.63 ERA in 45 games of relief for Single-A teams Greenville and Salem last year.
The New York Yankees then selected the more promising Daniel Turpen, a big right-hander acquired by Boston in the Ramon Ramirez trade on July 31. Turpen, a 24-year-old reliever, went 2-1 with a 4.91 ERA for Double-A Portland after coming over.
