Soxprospects.com discussed why maybe Hamilton was protected, as some team might have taken him due to the new baserunning-improvement rules.
They think Wikelman and Bonaci might be too far away, but with so many tanking teams, maybe they get taken.
They discussed Ward and Politi as most likely to be taken. Wallace is too inconsistent, in their opinion.
They had Abreu as 50-50.
Basically, they said they would n ot have been surprised with Hamilton & Abreu being protected, if Ward had been, too.
http://news.soxprospects.com/2022/11/podcast-ep-265-rule-5-protection.html