Naquin among 5 protected from Rule 5 Draft By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | @m_sheldon | November 20th, 2015 Including heralded prospect Tyler Naquin, the Indians added five young players to their 40-man roster on Friday. The moves protected them from exposure to next month's Rule 5 Draft. Cleveland selected the contracts of right-handed pitcher Mike Clevinger and outfielders James Ramsey and Naquin from Triple-A Columbus; left-handed pitcher Shawn Morimando from Double-A Akron and right-handed pitcher Dylan Baker from Class A Advanced Lynchburg. To clear a spot on the roster, the contract of right-handed pitcher C.C. Lee was sold to the Seibu Lions in Japan. The Rule 5 Draft allows teams to pluck unprotected players from other organizations. Eligible players include those who signed before turning 19 years old and have been in an organization for five years, or older signees who have been in an organization for four years. Clubs pay $50,000 to select a player in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. If that player doesn't stay on the 25-man roster for the full season, he must be offered back to his former team for $25,000. This year's Rule 5 Draft is scheduled for Dec. 10 in Nashville, Tenn., at the conclusion of the annual Winter Meetings. Among the Top 30 prospects in the Indians' system, left-handed pitcher Luis Lugo (No. 18), outfielder Luigi Rodriguez (No. 22) and second baseman Claudio Bautista (No. 24) could be selected in the Draft. Also exposed are right-handed pitchers Jeff Johnson (1.05 ERA, 56 strikeouts, 27 saves in 51 1/3 innings at Double-A); Josh Martin (2.27 ERA, 80 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings at Double-A); Enosil Tejeda (1.25 ERA in 43 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A) and infielder Ronny Rodriguez (.806 OPS at Double-A). Although he dealt with some injuries, the 24-year-old Naquin batted .300/.381/.446 with seven home runs, 25 doubles and 27 RBIs over 84 games combined with Akron and Columbus in 2015. MLB.com rated him the Indians' No. 5 prospect. Clevinger, 24, was 9-8 with a 2.73 ERA and 145 strikeouts over 158 innings in 27 games (26 starts) for Akron. The No. 15 prospect in the organization, Clevinger was promoted to Columbus for the postseason, winning both starts while tossing 15 1/3 scoreless innings (five hits, 17 strikeouts). Ramsey, 25, batted 243 with a .709 OPS, 12 homers, 21 doubles and 42 RBIs in 126 games for Columbus. He is listed as Cleveland's No. 12 prospect. A 2012 first-round Draft pick by the Cardinals, Ramsey was acquired from St. Louis in the 2014 trade for pitcher Justin Masterson. Morimando, the No. 16 prospect who turned 23 years old on Friday, was 10-12 with a 3.18 ERA in 28 starts for Akron. Over 158 2/3 innings, he allowed 139 hits with 128 strikeouts. He was tied for first in starts among Eastern League pitchers. Baker, 23, opened 2015 with five hitless innings on April 9 for Lynchburg before right elbow soreness forced him to be shut down. He had season-ending elbow surgery on May 20. The Indians' fifth-round pick in 2012, Baker has a 3.64 career ERA in the Minors but has been limited to 13 starts the past two seasons because of the elbow injury and a broken leg suffered in 2014. In 47 big league relief appearances over parts of three seasons, Lee had a 4.50 ERA. Save for two games with the Indians, he spent most of 2015 at Columbus. The Indians' Major League roster now stands full at 40 players. Indians promote 3 in baseball operations By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | @m_sheldon | November 20th, 2015 Indians general manager Mike Chernoff promoted three people within the club's baseball-operations department, it was announced on Friday. Matt Forman is now the director of baseball operations. Sky Andrecheck is the new senior director of baseball research and development, and Keith Woolner is the principal data scientist for baseball analytics. Next season will be Forman's fourth with the Indians. He spent the 2015 season as the assistant director of baseball operations. Besides aiding in the decision making within baseball operations, his duties include rule administration and interpretation, contract negotiations, arbitration, budgets, player evaluation and procurement. Andrecheck joined the organization in 2010 and was most recently the club's senior analyst. He is responsible for the club's analytical systems across baseball operations and serves as a resource for personnel and strategy decisions. Woolner, who just completed his ninth season with Cleveland, will continue to lead research using advanced metric principles, theories and concepts via engineering, statistics and data science. Tribe inks OF Robinson to Minor League deal Catcher Moore returns to Indians with invite to Spring Training The Indians added outfield depth Thursday by signing Shane Robinson to a Minor League contract with an invitation to Spring Training. It was also announced that catcher Adam Moore will return to the organization with a Minor League deal and an invite to big league camp. Robinson, 31, hit .250/.299/.322 in 197 plate appearances for the Twins in 2015, but his defensive versatility should be an asset for Cleveland if he makes the big league club out of camp. The Indians' depth chart is questionable right now, with Michael Brantley expected to miss part of April after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right (non-throwing) shoulder, rookie Abraham Almonte returning to center and converted third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall slotted in right. Robinson is a career .237/.302/.313 hitter in six seasons with the Cardinals and Twins. Moore, also 31, spent 2015 with Triple-A Columbus and batted .282/.328/.397 in 92 games with six home runs and 44 RBIs. He played in one big league game for Cleveland and went 1-for-4. Expanded safety nets, in-market streaming coming in '16 By Paul Hagen / MLB.com | November 19th, 2015 DALLAS -- Increased safety netting is likely to be in place by the opening of the 2016 season, and a new three-year agreement with FOX will allow fans to watch live in-market streaming on any mobile device, Commissioner Rob Manfred announced as the quarterly Owners Meetings wrapped up on Thursday. Manfred said a comprehensive report and recommendation on netting will be presented at the next Owners Meetings, to be held in January in Miami. "In addition to a recommendation on the physical location of nets, there will be a broad fan education component to the program," Manfred said at the Fairmont Dallas. "We'll have more details on that program after the [next] meeting, but there will be a change there." The issue isn't as cut-and-dried as it may first appear. "A lot of things seem easy that aren't always," Manfred said. "Obviously, fan safety is paramount for us. We want our fans to be safe in the ballpark. But we also have lots of fans who are very vocal about the fact that they don't like to sit behind nets. "The toughest issues for us are when we have fans on both sides of the equation. If it's about fans and, let's say, revenue, you always try to err on the side of the fan. But if it's that the fans want 'X' on one side and we're concerned about our fans on the other side, that's a more difficult balance. We're trying to reach an appropriate balance on the topic, recognizing that it's complicated by the fact that not every stadium is laid out exactly the same." The expansion of live streaming will give fans more access than ever to follow their teams. Currently, the deal covers only the 15 markets in which FOX is the regional sports network: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Texas, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles Angels, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New York Yankees, Arizona, San Diego, St. Louis and Tampa Bay. "We have begun and will continue conversations with the rights holders for the other 15 clubs and hope that the in-market streaming program will be comprehensive for the 2016 season," Manfred said. "The media landscape is changing very, very rapidly. It's important for us to make certain our content is available on as many platforms as possible in ways that fans may want to enjoy our games. And I think this is a huge step forward for the industry. I really do." MLB has pioneered the technology of live streaming in pro sports, starting with the first live stream in August 2002 and then creating MLB.TV as the first over-the-top (OTT) service. Millions of fans have watched live out-of-market games this way, and Thursday's With MLB.TV, MLB was the first sports league to stream its entire season (2003); first to wire its venues for TV-quality streaming (2005); first to use adaptive bit-rate streaming (2008); first to stream live 720p HD video (2009); first to stream live games/subscription product to the iPhone (2009); first with live video on connected devices (2009); first to stream live video to a gaming console (2010); first with live games embedded on Facebook & Twitter (2011); and first to make a live video stream embeddable to any site on the Internet (2013). Other developments the Commissioner discussed included: • The Pirates and Marlins will play regular-season games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 30 and 31.