Dodgers, Angels protect prospects from Rule 5 draft, add them to 40-man roster

Dodgers slugging prospect D.J. Peters, infielder Zach McKinstry and pitcher Mitchell White, and Angels pitcher Hector Yan and second baseman Jahmai Jones were added to their teams’ 40-man rosters Wednesday, protecting them from next month’s Rule 5 draft.

Among notable roster omissions were Dodgers right-hander Jordan Sheffield, a first-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2016, and Angels infielder Jose Rojas, a 26-year-old career minor leaguer who hit .293 with 31 homers and 107 RBIs at triple-A Salt Lake in 2019.

Sheffield, the older brother of Seattle Mariners pitcher Justus Sheffield, and Rojas, who played at Anaheim High School and Vanguard University, are eligible to be selected in the Dec. 12 Rule 5 draft, which will be held on the last day of the winter meetings in San Diego.

The Rule 5 draft enables players with significant minor league experience to be taken by another team. Players must remain on the major league 25-man roster the entire following season or be returned to their original organizations.

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Peters, a fourth-round pick out of Western Nevada Community College in 2016, has hit 92 homers in four minor league seasons, 23 of them, with 81 RBIs, in 125 games for double-A Tulsa and triple-A Oklahoma City in 2019.

McKinstry, a 33^rd-round pick out of Central Michigan in 2016, came on strong last season, batting .279 with an .807 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 12 homers and 52 RBIs in 95 games at Tulsa and .382 with a 1.174 OPS, seven homers and 26 RBIs in while playing five positions in 26 games at Oklahoma City.

White, a right-hander who was a second-round pick out of Santa Clara in 2016, also split 2019 between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, going 4-6 with a 5.09 ERA in 23 games, striking out 105 and walking 31 in 93 2/3 innings.

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Yan, a 20-year-old from the Dominican Republic with a 95-mph fastball and a big 81-mph curve, racked up 148 strikeouts in 109 innings and limited hitters to a .190 average at Class-A Burlington in 2019.

Jones, a second-round pick out of Norcross High in Georgia in 2015, rebounded from a sluggish start at double-A Mobile in which he hit .186 with one homer, 14 RBIs and 53 strikeouts in 49 games to hit .268 with four homers and 56 strikeouts in his last 81 games.