Major League Baseball's annual Rule 5 Draft was held Wednesday afternoon at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. The Rule 5 Draft is a mechanism designed to give minor leaguers a big-league opportunity by making it more difficult for clubs to stash players in the minors indefinitely.

The Orioles will leave the winter meetings with seven fewer prospects than they came with, and that’s not because they made a blockbuster trade.

The Mets lost a pair of pitching prospects in MLB’s Rule 5 Draft at the Winter Meetings on Wednesday. Left-hander Nate Lavender was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays, and right-hander Mike Vasil, the team’s No.