The Detroit Tigers enter the week needing to figure out which of their prospects to protect from the Rule 5 draft, with a deadline of 6 p.m. eastern on Tuesday.
The decisions won’t be easy. To protect a prospect from the Rule 5 draft the Tigers would have to move that player to the 40-man roster by that time. The problem? Detroit has a full 40-man roster. To protect a prospect, the Tigers will either have to designate a player for assignment or non-tender an arbitration-eligible player to create space.
The Tigers have five players among their Top 30 prospects per MLB Pipeline that are Rule 5 eligible and must be decided upon — catcher Thayron Liranzo (No. 5), second baseman Hao-Yu Lee (No. 6), pitcher Jake Miller (No. 19), shortstop Izaac Pacheco (No. 21) and pitcher RJ Petit (No. 30).
Thayron Liranzo’s and Hao-Yu Lee’s Rule 5 Prospects
The Tigers acquired Liranzo in their 2024 deadline trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers in which they dealt pitcher Jack Flaherty for Liranzo and infielder Trey Sweeney. Liranzo was already a highly regarded prospect in the Dodgers’ system before the trade, and he has only burnished those credentials over the past 18 months.
While he did not have a great offensive season for Double-A Erie, his skills behind the plate are highly regarded. He slashed .206/.308/.351 in 88 games with 11 home runs and 45 RBI. He spent spring training with the Tigers in February as a non-roster invitee and is likely to do so again in 2026.
One never knows what teams will do in the Rule 5 draft. But Liranzo would be a player many teams would be interested in drafting. But, to do so that team would have to put him on the 40-man roster immediately and he would have to be promoted to the Majors at some point in 2026 or he would be returned to the Tigers.
The same goes for Lee, who came to Detroit in a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies and just wrapped up action in the Arizona Fall League. He played all of 2025 at Triple-A Toledo, where he slashed .243/.342/.406 with 14 home runs and 61 RBI. Like Liranzo, he could be taken in the Rule 5 if he’s not protected.
MLB rules require teams to make decisions on prospects by a deadline. For players signed before age 18 it’s five years. For any player signed after age 19 its four years. At that point, those players must either be placed on the 40-man roster or be left exposed to the Rule 5 draft, which is in December at MLB’s winter meetings.
