Angels trade cash with Cubs
The Angels did not draft a player in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. They had the thirtieth pick and the player they wanted had already been selected. But they had arranged with someone to get that player anyway. The Chicago Cubs had drafted infielder Taylor Featherston with a much earlier pick in the draft. The young infield prospect was left unprotected by the Colorado Rockies and was on his way to being a Cub. But their pick of Featherston might have been pre-arranged with the Angels as they traded him to the Angels for cash almost immediately.
In essence the Angels bought the Cub' Rule 5 pick.
Taylor Featherston hit sixteen home runs and 33 doubles in 2014 in AA. His OPS+ of 109 in a pitching-dominant league translates to almost that in the majors in some Minor League Equivalency calculations. He only hit .260 but beggars cannot be choosers and the Halos are going to need a lively Spring Training of motivated players seeking to replace the now-traded Howie Kendrick.
Here is Minor League Video of Featherston hitting a double for the Tulsa Drillers...
Like all Rule 5 draftees, Featherston will have to remain on the 25-Man Halo roster for the entire 2015 season or he must be offered back to the Rockies at a nominal price. Many teams get around this these days by disabling a guy out of spring training (not literally, just by putting him on the DL with a fake mild injury). Some teams wait until right before opening day to bump a Rule-5 player off the major league roster in the hopes that the chaos of the end of spring training forces the drafted-from team to ignore the opportunity to retrieve their former prospect. For this to occur successfully, the draftee must clear waivers as well for a team to stash him in the minors - this famously happened with Darren O'Day, drafted by the Mets off the Angels as a Rule 5 claim he was waived, picked up by the Rangers and became a critical piece of their bullpen back when they were a good team earlier this decade.
So Featherston will have to impress in Spring to really have a chance at an infield job or his time with the Halos will be brief.