Twins select player in Rule 5 Draft, then immediately trade him

The Daniel Susac era for the Minnesota Twins was an extremely short one.

Lugnuts' Daniel Susac shows the ball to an umpire in the eighth inning during the game against the Whitecaps on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at Jackson Field in Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Twins selected a player in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday, only to immediately turn around and trade him away.

With the fourth pick in this year's MLB Rule 5 Draft, which allows teams to acquire minor-league prospects not on other teams' 40-man rosters, the Twins selected catcher Daniel Susac. He's a 24-year-old former Athletics first-round pick (19th overall in 2022) who hit .275 with 18 home runs and an .832 OPS in Triple-A last season.

For a brief moment, Susac looked like competition for recent acquisition Alex Jackson in the Twins' backup catcher role, now that Christian Vazquez is no longer on the roster. But the Daniel Susac era in Minnesota was extremely short-lived. Minutes later, a report emerged (from FanGraphs' Eric Longenhagen) that the Twins were trading Susac to the San Francisco Giants.

In return, the Twins are getting 17-year-old catching prospect Miguel Caraballo from the Giants. The Venezuela native made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League this year and slashed .264/.432/.442 (.874 OPS) with five home runs and eight stolen bases. Basically, he's a lottery ticket teenage prospect who could, in a best-case scenario, factor into the Twins' catching plans in the 2030s.

After the Twins released outfielder Carson McCusker from their 40-man roster earlier on Wednesday, it became expected that they would fill that spot by adding a player in the Rule 5 Draft, which they did with pitcher Eiberson Castellano last year (he never pitched for the Twins and was returned to his original organization). But instead of selecting a player with the intent of keeping him on their roster, they picked up Susac as a way of adding another young international prospect.

And as a result, that spot on the 40-man roster currently remains open.

Twins don't lose any prospects

None of the notable names who the Twins could've theoretically lost in the Rule 5 Draft — players like RHP C.J. Culpepper, OF Kyler Fedko, OF Kala'i Rosario, RHP Jose Olivares, and C Ricardo Olivar — were selected by other franchises. That means they'll remain in the Twins' organization heading into the 2026 season.

The Twins did lose and gain some prospects in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 draft:

• LHP Aaron Rozek went to the Angels
• RHP John Stankiewicz went to the Tigers
• Twins took OF Garrett Spain from the Brewers
• Twins took RHP Sam Ryan from the Angels

All four of those players spent most or all of their time last season at the Double-A level.

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