Every Rule 5 Draft pick in Dodgers' history

December 12th, 2020

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers are better known for the players they lost in the Rule 5 Draft than the few they gained.

Atop the list is Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. They also lost John Wetteland, briefly. And Shane Victorino -- twice.

Additions have been few and far between. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, they’ve had only one Rule 5 draftee spend the entire next season with the big league team: Pitcher D.J. Houlton, in 2004.

The Dodgers were more active around the turn of the last century, adding significant players like Nap Rucker in 1906, Jake Daubert in '09 and Casey Stengel in '11. But when Branch Rickey expanded the farm system in the '40s, needing players from other clubs was bad optics.

That pride of development is alive today, as the current regime hasn’t taken a player in the Rule 5 Draft since taking over in 2014. In fact, the Dodgers haven’t called a Rule 5 name since Houlton's, 16 years ago.

While the format and eligibility rules have changed at times, here are the players selected in the Rule 5 Draft by the Dodgers in the last half-century.

1976: Reds INF Teddy Martinez -- The utilityman, who spent all of 1976 in the Minor Leagues, played the last three years of his career as a useful bench player for a Dodgers club that went to the World Series in '77-78.

1981: Blue Jays C Ramon Lora -- He never made the Major Leagues and had just finished his fourth season playing in Mexico when he was tragically killed in an auto accident.

1988: Blue Jays RHP Chris Jones -- He failed to make the big league club, but the following season, Jones was taken again by the Dodgers in the Triple-A phase of the Draft.

Expos RHP Jeff Fischer -- When he did not make the club, the Dodgers traded catcher Gil Reyes to the Expos so they could send Fischer to the Minor Leagues. He pitched in two games for the Dodgers in 1989 and was injured for most of '90.

1992: Royals RHP Dera Clark -- He did not make the big league club and was returned to the Royals.

1994: A’s LHP Ed Vosberg -- Originally sent to the Dodgers by the Astros in 1989 as the player to be named in the Javier Ortiz trade, Vosberg was reacquired five years later. He didn’t make the big league club and was granted his release, but he continued his career for another eight seasons.

1996: Giants INF Deivi Cruz -- He was a Dodger for about five minutes before being flipped to the Tigers with Juan Hernaiz for Jeff Berblinger in a pre-arranged deal. Cruz went on to a 10-year career.

1997: Indians RHP Marc Deschenes -- He did not make the big league team and was returned to Cleveland.

Yankees RHP Frank Lankford -- In his only big league stint, he pitched in 12 games for the Dodgers with a 5.95 ERA before he was returned to the Yankees in May.

2000: Mets LHP Jose Antonio Nunez -- Pitched in six games for the Dodgers with a 13.50 ERA before he was claimed off waivers by San Diego, where he appeared in 56 games and posted a 3.31 ERA.

2004: Astros RHP D.J. Houlton -- Went 6-9 with a 5.16 ERA and was in the big leagues the entire '05 season with Los Angeles. Houlton was in the Minors in '06, pitched in 18 games for the Dodgers in '07, was sold to the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in Japan in '08 and currently scouts American players for the Orix Buffaloes in the Japan Pacific League.