Brewers officially protect talented pitching prospect from 2025 Rule 5 Draft

On Monday afternoon, the Milwaukee Brewers announced that two more members of their 2025 squad became free agents after their mutual options were turned down. The Brewers declined their side of Danny Jansen's $12 million mutual option, and Brandon Woodruff passed on his $20 million mutual option.

While seeing a long-time fan favorite like Woody become a free agent is not easy to stomach for Brewers fans, yesterday's decision did come with one silver lining. With Jansen and Woodruff both officially becoming free agents, the team opened up several spots on their 40-man roster. As a result, the team was able to add their 25th-ranked prospect, right-handed starting pitcher Coleman Crow, to their roster, which protects him from being snatched by another team during the Rule 5 Draft next month.

Brewers add Coleman Crow to their 40-man roster, protect him from the Rule 5 Draft

As a reminder, the Rule 5 Draft is an offseason draft that allows teams to select eligible players from other teams’ farm systems and add them to their major league roster, where they are tied down to various roster restrictions. Players become eligible for the Rule 5 Draft if they signed at age 18 or younger and have accrued five years of service time in the minor leagues, or if they were signed at age 19 and have played four seasons in the minors. Teams can protect players from being selected in the Rule 5 Draft by adding them to their 40-man roster.

At this time a year ago, the Brewers added Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson to their 40-man roster, protecting them from the Rule 5 Draft, but made the controversial decision to leave Shane Smith unprotected. Smith went on to be the first overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft by the Chicago White Sox, and just seven months later he was named to the American League All-Star team in his rookie campaign.

This year, the Brewers are hoping to avoid that same fate, and it starts with protecting Crow, who is one of the most intriguing pitchers in the team's farm system. Crow was originally acquired back in December of 2023 in a trade that sent Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor to the New York Mets. Crow, who was the lone player the Brewers received in the salary-dump trade, was working his way back from Tommy John surgery at the time and didn't make an appearance in Milwaukee's minor league system until April of this year.

When he's healthy, Crow has been incredible on the mound. He posted a 2.51 ERA in 10 starts for the Biloxi Shuckers this season with an impressive 52 strikeouts in just 43 innings, but his season was once again cut short by injury. Shortly after being promoted to Triple-A in mid-June, Crow went down with a hip injury that forced him to miss several weeks. He made two starts for the Nashville Sounds before a flexor strain ended his season in late July. Luckily, the injury didn't escalate to anything more severe, as flexor strains often do, and Crow should enjoy a relatively normal offseason, now officially a member of the Brewers' 40-man roster.