Rule 5 Draft

Season 1: Savannah Sand Gnats

After three full season with the New York Mets, we have been picked up by the Baltimore Orioles. This is awesome news for Logan’s career! We are so thankful for the Mets – they gave Logan the initial opportunity to pursue his baseball career when they drafted him in 2011. We’ve made so many friends and memories throughout the years.

This opportunity comes after great disappointment. In November we thought Logan would be placed on the Mets 40-man roster, protecting him from becoming eligible for the Rule 5 draft and opening him up to another team. To our surprise, the Mets decided to leave him off the roster. It’s tough to swallow after three seasons of great numbers and many, many wins by Logan.

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Season 2: Binghamton Mets, All-Star Team

To put this in perspective, it’s kind of like working for a company for over three years and producing top results – good enough to promote to the next level each year. Then, when it comes to the big promotion that comes with a pay-raise and some job stability, your company posts the promotions online and turns out they’ve promoted a guy that you didn’t even know could interview for it. Uhhh, what?  

I want to be clear that we are thankful to the Mets and love the staff, players and friends we’ve made, and I understand that it’s a business and you gotta do whatcha gotta do. On top of that, you never know where this career could take you, and we could very well end up with the Mets again as early as the end of Spring Training this coming year. 

But God is always working for the good. I kept repeating to Logan every morning, “Something good is gonna happen.” 

So Rule 5 Draft Day rolled around. December 11th, 2014. We had spontaneously decided to go out the night before to go see a rapper that invited us back stage. Turns out it was a Frat party, but that’s a story for another time. Needless to say, I rolled into work looking awful and feeling quite dehydrated. 

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Season 3: Las Vegas 51's

Here’s what we knew about the Rule 5 Draft: It aims to prevent teams from having too many talented players in their minor league system when other teams would be willing to have them play in the majors. If you are taken in the Rule 5 Draft, you must be placed at least one step above where you finished the previous season. For example, Logan finished the 2014 season in AAA, so he has to be put on the Big League roster if taken by a team.


At exactly 11 AM, I logged onto MLB.com and began listening to the draft. It’s very similar to the regular draft that takes place in June. A coordinator goes down a list, calling out team names. A designated person from the team says, “The _insert team_ take _insert position and name_.” The coordinator repeats it and they move on to the next team. 

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So I’m listening and trying to work at the same time. I was attempting to type, but I was shaking so badly I finally just stopped. This process happens very quickly because only teams that have an open spot on their 40-man roster are eligible to pick someone up in this draft. 

So I’m sitting there and hear “… RHP Logan Varrett” and I kinda screamed and immediately turned up the volume. Then the coordinator repeats, “The Baltimore Orioles take RHP Logan Verrett” (Yes, I spelt it different the first time because they mispronounced his name). I screamed! I called Logan. He was still sleeping. 

What an incredible feeling to relay the news that he was picked up on someone’s major league roster! It’s the coolest. 
We are feeling immensely blessed, a little confused, and VERY excited for what this next year holds.  

Go O’s!