CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Indians added Trevor Stephan, a former third-round draft pick of the New York Yankees during the Major League phase of Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft.
Stephan, a 6-foot-5 and 225 pound righty out of Arkansas, will be added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster and must remain there throughout the 2021 season or be offered back to the Yankees for half of the $100,000 draft fee.
Stephan split the 2019 season between Single-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton for New York. In 20 appearances he posted a 4-7 record with a 4.73 ERA in 80 innings, allowing 86 hits, 46 runs, 42 ER, 5 HR, 29 BB, 91 K. In his three minor league seasons, Stephan is 11-17, with a 3.70 ERA in 55 games (53 starts) over 238.2 innings, allowing 209 hits, 105 runs, 98 ER, 15 HR, 73 BB, 275 K.
Stephan was not ranked among New York’s top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline after being listed at No. 28 in 2017. He climbed as high as No. 7 in the club’s prospect rankings in 2018 and was No. 15 in 2019. Stephan began the 2019 season as Trenton’s opening day starter, but was demoted to Tampa in mid-June after going 1-4 with a 6.27 ERA in 10 starts.
He returned to Trenton in August and allowed one run over nine innings in his final two starts. Stephan spent nearly a month on the injured list during the 2019 campaign with a sore back.
One Yankees scout, speaking on condition of anonymity to NJ.com last week, said Stephan might not be ready for a back-of-the-rotation role for a big league club in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Mets selected Indians No. 25 prospect RHP Luis Oviedo with the ninth pick in the first round and Oakland took outfielder Ka’ai Tom with the 26th pick.
Oviedo missed parts of 2018 and 2019 with back issues after being rated the No. 2 prospect in the Cleveland farm system by Baseball Prospectus and No. 8 by Baseball America. An international free agent out of Venezuela, the Indians signed Oviedo in July of 2015.
New York then traded Oviedo to Pittsburgh for cash considerations. The Pirates, who took RHP Jose Soriano from the Angels with the No. 1 pick, now have two of the top nine selections in this year’s Rule 5 Draft.
Tom, an organizational All-Star for the Indians in 2019, led Cleveland’s farm system in RBI (86) and total bases (255) in 2019 as he was selected to the Double-A All-Star Game. A fifth-round draft pick in 2015, the Honolulu, Hawai’i native was a spring training invitee and spent the 2020 season at the club’s alternate site in Lake County.
In the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft, Cleveland selected center fielder Chris Roller, 24, from the Dodgers. Roller was a 30th round pick by Los Angeles in 2017 out of McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. The 6-foot-0, 190-pound outfielder owns a three-year professional slash line of .255/.353/.421/.774 with 31 steals in 187 games.
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