Twins select Phillies pitching prospect Eiberson Castellano in the Rule 5 draft
Castellano, 23, was the organization's minor league pitcher of the year in 2024. He was left off the Phillies' 40-man roster.
DALLAS — Less than three months after Eiberson Castellano was named the Phillies’ minor league pitcher of the year, the Minnesota Twins selected the right-hander Wednesday in the Rule 5 draft.
Castellano, 23, was not added to the Phillies’ 40-man roster ahead of the draft on the final day of the winter meetings, leaving him unprotected despite his 3.99 ERA and 136 strikeouts across 103⅔ innings this year. The Twins paid $100,000 to select him with the ninth pick of the draft’s major league phase.
If Castellano does not remain on Minnesota’s active major league roster for the full 2025 season, he will be offered back to the Phillies for $50,000.
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“It really came down to that roster spots are still valuable for you at this time, and we thought overall that somebody might have a hard time keeping him [on the major league roster],” said Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations.
“He was the guy who probably would have been the last guy in our protection perspective. We tried to keep a couple rosters spots open, so we liked him, but we didn’t like him enough, of course, to put him on the roster.”
Castellano split the 2024 season between high A and double A with the Phillies. The Venezuelan pitcher was the only Phillies player selected during the major and minor league phases on Wednesday.
Griff McGarry, the Phillies’ No. 21 prospect, was also left unprotected, but he remains with the organization. McGarry, 25, missed most of the 2024 season with a back injury, but when he did pitch, he struggled with command.
The Phillies ultimately moved the right-hander to a bullpen role, and he finished the season with a 4.55 ERA in high A and triple A. McGarry returned to a starting role during a stint in the Arizona Fall League, where he pitched to a 3.75 ERA in four starts and was named a Fall Star.
With their pick in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft, the Phillies drafted right-handed pitcher Mike Vasil from the Mets and immediately flipped him to the Rays in exchange for cash considerations. Vasil was ranked No. 18 in New York’s system.
During the minor league phase, when players unprotected on major league rosters or triple A rosters are eligible to be selected, the Phillies drafted six players. These selections are not required to remain on the 40-man roster.
The Phillies acquired outfielders Eduardo Lopez from Boston and Elio Prado from Baltimore; right-handed pitchers Enmanuel Mejia from Tampa Bay, Augusto Calderon from St. Louis, and Gabriel Barbosa from the Yankees; and infielder Isaias Dipre from Pittsburgh.
It was a relatively quiet winter meetings for the Phillies after they signed free-agent reliever Jordan Romano on Monday.
“We had a lot of conversations,” Dombrowski said. “We continue to have conversations, but nothing is materialized. We made strides with what we needed to get done, and we’ll continue to work on that.”