Pirates add 5 players, lose 3 in minor league phase of Rule 5 Draft

With the eighth overall selection in this year’s Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates passed on making a pick.

However, in the minor-league portion of the draft, the Pirates added five players: righty reliever Franck De La Rosa (Athletics), left-handed relievers Randy Labaut and Steve Hajjar (both from the Cleveland Guardians), catcher Aaron McKeithan (St. Louis Cardinals) and left fielder Joel Mendez (New York Yankees).

The Pirates also lost three players from their system: righty Darvin Garcia (Boston Red Sox), who split 2024 between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona; catcher Dylan Shockley (Atlanta Braves), whose 40 games were played with the Curve and Triple-A Indianapolis; as well as shortstop Isaias Dipre (Philadelphia Phillies) of the Dominican Summer League.

None of the players lost were ranked as top-30 prospects per MLB Pipeline.

With their first pick in the minor-league portion of the draft, the Pirates picked the 24-year-old De La Rosa of the Stockton Ports, the Athletics’ Single-A affiliate.

De La Rosa went 1-1 with a 5.88 ERA last year at Single-A, appearing in nine games (one start) and pitching 26 innings, striking out 39 with 19 walks.

A native of Yaguate, Dominican Republic, the 6-foot-8, 200-pound De La Rosa originally was signed by the Athletics in 2019.

Before the 2024 campaign, De La Rosa had been working his way through rookie ball in the Arizona Complex League.

With their second minor-league selection, the Pirates picked McKeithan, a 24-year-old who spent the 2024 campaign with St. Louis’ Double-A affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals.

In 55 games, he slashed .264/.356/.325 with a home run and five RBIs.

Playing at the High-A level in 2023, McKeithan batted .266, hitting five homers with 35 RBIs in 63 games.

Originally a 16th-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft by the Cardinals out of Charlotte, McKeithan has played 224 minor-league games.

The Pirates chose Labaut, 28, with their third minor-league selection.

He spent 2024 with the Columbus Clippers, Cleveland’s Triple-A club, going 3-6 with a 4.57 ERA in 36 games, three of which were starts.

In 61 innings, he posted 52 strikeouts and 43 walks.

A 2019 pick (35th round) out of Havana, Cuba, by Cleveland, Labaut is 24-12 with a 3.47 ERA in his minor-league career of 140 games.

The Pirates then chose the lefty Hajjar, a second-round (No. 61 overall) draft pick by the Minnesota Twins in 2021.

A 6-foot-5, 240-pound pitcher who played collegiately at Michigan, Hajjar spent 2024 at the High-A level, going 2-1 with a 7.26 ERA in 30 games for the Lake County Captains.

Mendez, 21, was the Pirates’ fifth and final pick of the Rule 5 Draft’s minor-league phase.

A right-handed hitter from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, he has spent the last four seasons playing rookie ball with the Florida Complex League Yankees.

In 2024, he hit .292 with six homers and 30 RBIs over 46 games while for his FCL career, in 183 games, he’s slashed .242/.362/.437 with 19 home runs and 102 RBIs.

Regarding assets lost, the Pirates were not forced to part with any crown-jewel members of their farm system.

Shockley, 27, by virtue of playing 29 games with Triple-A Indianapolis last year, was the closest of the three to the big leagues, but he twice was placed on the Development List and was unlikely to receive much consideration for an MLB call-up in the short- and long-term.

The 25-year-old Garcia earned a promotion to Double-A last year, appearing in one game, while in Greensboro, where he spent the majority of the campaign, he was 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA over 31 games and 44 innings.

Dipre, 21, is a career .281 hitter in three seasons (123 games) in the rookie Dominican Summer League.