Categories: News

Rule 5 Draft: Phillies lose pitcher Hoby Milner

The Phillies lost only one player in the major league phase of the Rule 5 Draft.

Left-handed pitcher Hoby Milner was selected by the Indians. Milner, 25, was effective in Reading last season (5-3, 1.84 ERA, 54 K, 12 BB) and was relatively decent in a small sample in Lehigh Valley (4.50 ERA, 22 K, 3 BB). The Indians will seek to use him as a left-handed one-out option out of their bullpen this season.

If the Indians don’t keep Milner on the 25-man roster all year, he goes back to the Phillies (unless the teams work out a deal).

In the minor league portion of the draft, the Rays selected pitcher Jairo Munoz. The 25-year-old went 0-1 with a 1.00 ERA in just nine innings last year between Clearwater and the Gulf Coast League. He spent much of 2016 injured.

The Phils didn’t select in the major league portion of the draft but took Jorge Flores, a shortstop in the Blue Jays organization, in the minor league portion, and will likely move him to double-A Reading. Flores hit .211/.280/.286 between single- and double-A last season. Rules are less stringent about the minor league portion of the Rule 5, as it’s used mostly for teams to get minor league filler.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.