Red Sox lose Almanzar to Orioles in Rule 5 Draft

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The Red Sox lost third baseman Michael Almanzar to the Orioles in the Major League phase of Thursday morning's Rule 5 Draft.

Signed as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2007, Almanzar was coming off a decent year for Double-A Portland in which he hit .268 with 16 homers, 81 RBIs and a .760 OPS.

If Almanzar doesn't crack Baltimore's Opening Day roster, the Orioles can either work out a trade for him or offer him back to Boston for $25,000.

"He was obviously a candidate [to get selected]," said Red Sox director of player development Ben Crockett. "He put up pretty good numbers last year in Double-A. It's hard to figure out exactly how the Draft's going to play out. He's got some tools. We'll see what happens. Certainly we've got some guys at the corners, at Portland last year as well as Pawtucket. Maybe he'll return to us. If not, we'll get it covered."

With their roster already at 40, the Red Sox didn't select anyone in the Major League portion of the Rule 5 Draft. However, they did take shortstop Jonathan Roof from the Phillies in the Triple-A phase.

A right-handed hitter, Roof played as high as Triple-A in 2012, but he didn't move beyond Class A last season. In four Minor League seasons, Roof is a .255 hitter with eight homers and 112 RBIs in 954 at-bats.

"We were looking at some organizational depth," said director of professional scouting Jared Porter. "[He plays] middle infield, really good makeup, performed last year in [Class] A ball. He'll come into Spring Training and compete for one of our Minor League middle-infield positions."