Mets Minors: Mets Add Top Prospects to 40 Man Roster

Baseball rosters are ruled by a rather complicated set of rules. The 25 man roster is the "active" roster, the players that are actually playing with your team, and are in the ballpark with you.

The 40 man roster is the expanded roster of players within the organization that is full of players that are signed to major league contracts. They're eligible to be called up to play for the major league team at any time.

Once minor league players get 5 years of service time in an organization, they must be added to the 40 man roster or they're made available in the Rule 5 Draft. The rules regarding players selected in the Rule 5 draft are kinda crazy too. They have to remain on their new teams major league 25 man roster for an entire season or they're offered back to their original team.

So, basically, this forces teams to promote young players instead of losing them to other ball clubs. And at this years deadline, the Mets added 5 new players to their 40 man roster to protect them.

Amed Rosario. SS. No brainer. This kid is the real deal, and might end up as a top 10 prospect in all of baseball. Asdrubal Cabrera is just keeping his seat warm for him inthe majors.

Tomas Nido. Catcher. Had a GREAT year. Not good, great. He won the Florida State League batting title, and had a phenomenal offensive season where it's really tough to have on...especially as a catcher. Plus his defense has come a long way. If I were d'Arnaud and Plawecki, I'd be worried about this guy

Wuilmer Becerra. Outfielder. Had a pretty good year with an injured shoulder the entire time. He was part of the Syndergaard/Dickey trade and might end up making that one of the best Mets trades of all time. The dude can hit and he's fast. He might end up in Queens in a year and make us all forget about Grandy.

Chris Flexen. Pitcher. Had an ok year in Advanced A ball, but this was his first full season back from Tommy John surgery, and he got better and better as the year went. I think he has some potential, but this might be more of "protection" move considering the relative lack of high end pitching prospects currently in the system.

Marcos Molina. Pitcher. Still coming back from TJ surgery, but was once a top 5 prospect for the Mets. Cannon for an arm, but still needs to learn how to pitch. Give him another year or 2 in the system might make him a potential top 3 pitcher. Makes sense to protect him, considering his upside and what the Mets have already invested in him.