40-man moves: Athletics select infielder Renato Nunez, Orioles claim outfielder Alex Hassan off waivers

Ahead of today's deadline to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from Major League Baseball's Rule 5 draft in December, the Oakland Athletics added third baseman Renato Nunez from Class-A Advanced Stockton to the 40-man roster. To make room, the Baltimore Orioles claimed outfielder Alex Hassan, 26, from the Oakland Athletics. The Athletics 40-man roster now stands at 40 players.

Renato Nunez is featured in today's story on players to potentially be protected from the Rule 5 draft:

The obvious name that the A's should protect is Renato Nunez, a top 6 prospect in the A's system. The power hitting third baseman out of Venezuela was signed to a $2.2 million bonus in 2010. He had a very good year in Stockton to the tune of an 853 OPS and will be in Midland next year. A team may be willing to give him some time in a role similar to Freiman. He needs work on his approach:113 strikouts to only 34 walks in 563 plate appearances, although both trended in the right direction from 2013 in a similar amount of plate appearances.

The Athletics claimed Hassan from the Boston Red Sox on November 17. From our story on Monday:

Hassan, a former 20th round pick, is a Duke alumnus and has been in the Red Sox organization since 2009. He hits right-handed and mostly plays right field, and in 114 games in AAA this year he hit .287/.378/.426 with 8 HRs. Obviously not a ton of power there, but the OBP skills are very promising.