Bearing in mind they're all longshots and most of them are pitchers because they'd protect 45 pitchers if they were allowed to, there were a couple of position players who looked interesting based on their description....

Drew Millas, Nats ... a 25-yo switch-hitting C a couple of seasons out of college. Writeup says the defense and pitch-handling are good. Nothing above AA so unlikely to be close enough but maybe he could stick in a backup role on a lousy team.

Ivan Johnson, Reds ... a 2B but writeup suggests he could be utility. Seems his main issue has been injuries the last two years. The BA is low, the Ks are high but seems at least worth a look to see if he's healthy. He's the second Ivan Johnson in pro ball.

Malcom Nunez, Pirates ... Retro mentioned him in the Santana thread. A wild-swinging bat-first 1B apparently but with the universal DH, one of the crap teams (the Pirates say) might take a chance.

Especially for a guy like Millas, maybe Johnson, it seems a good opportunity to spend $50 K (or whatever) just to get the guy into spring training. He probably won't stick on the 25-man roster but if you like what you see, try to work out a small deal for the guy. The Cubs probably have worse ways to spend $50 K given their sudden lack of catching depth.

I'm a little surprised nobody traded for Millas so they could option him next season.

The guys I'd like my favorite bad team to take a flyer on:

Hankins. As a prep pitcher he was getting some 1:1 buzz. Has been good when able to take the mound. He could be used as a garbage time reliever to get into the system, and may still have potential as a SP if healthy.
Jackson. Of the infielders who could probably stick as a back of the bench utility guy after being decent at AA, he's got the most prospect pedigree and best performance record. Potential average regular.
Nunez/Johnston. Both likely AAAA types, but with universal DH there's room for a bad team to throw them into the mix and while the expected outcome is replacement level, there's some upside and the likely alternative is replacement level with less upside.

As always, there are dozens of guys who might be decent relievers, I'd rather grab a few at $50k a pop than give $2m guaranteed to Joely Rodriguez ($3m if he's any good).

You could create a pretty darned good team out of Rule V guys of the past 50 years:

C - Jody Davis
1B - Darrell Evans
2B - Manny Trillo
SS - Everth Cabrera (I think SS is the weak link of this exercise...)
3B - Bobby Bonilla
DH - Josh Hamilton
UT - Bip Roberts
OF - George Bell, Jose Bautista, Paul Blair
SP - Johan Santana, RA Dickey, Ferris Fain, Mike Morgan, Sal Maglie
RP - Willie Hernandez, Jeff Nelson, Joakim Soria, Ryan Pressley, Garrett Whitlock

Honestly, it strikes me that virtually any team that has a reasonable slot available for a Rule V guy should take a shot at a relief pitcher or backup catcher, at a minimum. This is especially true if you are not anticipating being a championship contender.

Dan Uggla and Mark Canha too

Kelly Guber, Dave Hollins, and Shane Victorino as well.

The Pirates leaving Nunez (who they just traded for!) unprotected while signing a 37 year old to play first is the most Pittsburgh Pirate thing ever. I go back and forth between wondering if they have a nefarious plan to be terrible or they just have zero idea of what they are doing.

first basemen tend not to get picked in this draft and there's been a move toward protecting less relatively raw guy than previously (which i think is smart) but i'd've protected nunez and think he's not that far away from being ready.

The list of players who were drafted and didn't stick is really long. The list of players who were eligible, weren't drafted and had a great career is longer than the list of players above.

You could create a pretty darned good team out of Rule V guys of the past 50 years:

SP - Ferris Fain

Nitpick, but his Rule V draft selection was in 1946, way more than 50 years ago (it's actually closer to 100! :) )

The cardinals prospect geeks love Nunez's bat. I was surprised to see the Pirates cut him adrift (because he will surely be taken). Both the guys we gave up for Quintana were once considered high flying prospects and I believe the Pirates have no interest in either

I think the Pirates are interested in pitcher Oviedo. He started in rotation all through September. They did send him to Triple A in August, whether to work on something or for service reasons I don't know.

I'm pretty sure they're leaving Nunez exposed because they figure with today's short benches they're sure he'll either go undrafted or be returned at some point. Maybe that's right, but it looks suspiciously like sharp moves by previous Pirate regimes.

You could create a pretty darned good team out of Rule V guys of the past 50 years:

SP - Ferris Fain


Nitpick, but his Rule V draft selection was in 1946, way more than 50 years ago (it's actually closer to 100! :) )

Fain was also a first baseman, not a starting pitcher.

What a strange life Fain had. It’s worth a couple of minutes to read his wiki page

I know this would be impossible to compile, but I'd also be curious about guys that were eligible, but not selected at all. I remember on early message boards being excited about an Angels catcher named Mike Napoli who IIRC was unprotected. I know the Royals left Whit Merrifield unprotected a few times.

right? you can deduce it because you can figure out who was eligible (by and large) for a given draft, but that's work.
what's really hard as a local yokel is minor league phase eligibility lists. i've gotten my hands on maybe 5 lists total in decades of following this stuff.