The Rule 5 Draft took place on Wednesday and although the Cubs didn’t pick a player in the MLB portion of the event they did lose a starting pitcher to the Seattle Mariners. Meanwhile, the Cubs selected three players and lost a few more during the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft.

Mariners Select Pitcher Chris Clarke From Cubs

The Mariners picked right-handed pitcher Chris Clarke in the major league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Clarke, 24, was a fourth-round selection of the Cubs back in 2019, taking him 132nd overall out of college. Clarke has pitched in 46 minor league games in the Cubs organization, posting a 4.26 ERA in 196.2 innings. In 2022, the right-hander made 21 starts and 26 appearances overall, spending time in at advanced A-Ball in South Bend and then at Double-A Tennessee.

Clarke finished this season with a 4.64 ERA in 120.1 innings. The 6-foot-7 righty generated a 58% ground ball rate during his 20 outings at Double-A this past season.

The Mariners will now have to keep Clarke on their active MLB roster in 2023, or they can try to work out a trade with the Cubs to give them the ability to keep Clarke and option him back to the minors. We know Mariners president Jerry Dipoto loves making trades.

Cubs Select Pitcher Jose Aquino From Mariners

This was part of the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. No fancy transaction rules here, select a player and he’s yours.

The Cubs selected left-handed pitcher Jose Aquino from the Mariners and well, there’s not a lot of info about him. He pitched in two games in the Mariners’ system in 2022, but does have experience playing in the DSL back in 2019 and 2021. The 20-year-old is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Here’s a brief overview of him from Sept. 2021, from the Lookout Landing site that writes about the Mariners.

At 6-foot-3, 184 pounds, Aquino is starting to grow into his adult body and athletic markers are tantalizing. He’s got long levers and really works down the mound well. The lanky lefty touched 97 this season and worked 91-94, generating the fifth-best whiff rate in the organization at 40.5 percent. Aquino has good spin metrics and throws enough strikes as a 19-year-old to project a starting-caliber arm in the future. Seattle could potentially be aggressive with Aquino in 2022 and start him in Modesto.

Who isn’t a sucker for a hard-throwing lefty?

Cubs Select Pitcher Nick Burdi From Padres

Nick Burdi was a second-round pick of the Pirates back in 2014 out of Louisville, but it’s been a while since he’s been on the mound in live game action. The right-handed pitcher did make it up to the majors with the Pirates, appearing in 16 games from 2018-20. That came after undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2017. Burdi didn’t have much success in the show and then had Tommy John surgery again in Nov. 2020.

Burdi has been a part of the Padres organization a few different times since Dec. 2020, but he hasn’t pitched since the 2020 season.

Cubs Select Outfielder Jefferson Encarnacion From Phillies

Jefferson Encarnacion is a 21-year-old outfielder who hasn’t played in the United States and hasn’t played at all since 2019 in the DSL. He’ll most likely be working with Cubs coaches in Arizona throughout 2023.

Cubs Lose Pitchers Bryan King and Luis Rodriguez to Astros

The Astros selected a pair of Cubs minor leaguers, taking lefties Bryan King and Luis Rodriguez. King, 26, began 2022 at low A-ball in Myrtle Beach and then pitched at Double-A Tennessee before an injury shut him down in July. Rodriguez, 23, has a 3.04 ERA in over 200 innings in the minors, but the highest level he’s reached has been at low A-ball, where his ERA went above four in 2022. However, he does have great strikeout numbers, 268 in 216 innings, including 106 in only 69 innings last season.