Rumors: Did Yankees Use Rule 5 Draft Against Red Sox?

The Yankees drafted right handed pitcher Daniel Turpen from the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft yesterday.

It was an odd choice because Rule 5 drafted players have to stay on the 25-man roster all season or else you lose them, and judging by Turpen’s numbers, there wasn’t much chance for him to stick with the Yankees all season long. Apparently, there could have been an ulterior motive at play though.

Via Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus:

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Yankees: Daniel Turpen, RHP (from Red Sox): Reliever with low-90s sinker finished strong in Arizona Fall League with eight straight scoreless appearances; most entertaining rumor of the day involves the Yankees selected him as a jab at Boston, with Turpen thought to be on the list of potential PTBNLs to San Diego in the Adrian Gonzalez deal.

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Don’t look now, but the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is heating up again. It’s kind of died down a bit as of late, but ever since Theo Epstein offered Mariano Rivera a three-year deal, it has been back on.

As far as this Turpen story goes, the Yankees heard that he might be the player to be named later, so they took him in the Rule 5 draft. The trade is over and done with, so this is not that big of a deal. It mostly just messes with the Sox.

Hopefully, the Padres pick somebody better instead of him, because this could potentially be protecting Turpen for them.

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• December 9, 2010 -- Yankees Lose 2 & Get 2 in Rule 5 Draft