The Rockies are hoping Riley Kelly carries on their recent track record of fourth-round draft success.
Colorado picked the 6-foot-5 right-handed pitcher out of UC Irvine at No. 107 to begin the second and final day of the 2025 MLB draft. The fourth round has been a bright spot for the Rockies lately, with four picks from that round since 2018 already making their MLB debut with the club.
A fourth-round review: In ’18, the Rockies took Ryan Feltner out of Ohio State, who became part of the starting rotation. The next year, they selected center fielder Brenton Doyle out of Division II Shepherd University, who won consecutive Gold Gloves to begin his big-league career.
Then in ’21 they took catcher Hunter Goodman out of Memphis, who became an all-star this year amid a breakout season, and in ’22 they took shortstop Ryan Ritter out of Kentucky. Ritter fast-tracked through the minors to debut this season.
If recent history is any indication, the Rockies have high hopes for Kelly, who was 4-1 with a 3.78 ERA in 17 games (12 starts) for the Anteaters this year. Kelly was picked in the 20th round out of high school by Arizona in ’22 but elected to go to college.
His first couple of seasons at UC Irvine were injury-riddled as he only pitched 20 1/3 innings across those two years. He started in the bullpen this season but then got moved to the rotation, which shot up his draft stock. He has a low-90s fastball that he can run up to 96, a plus curve that registers over 3,000 rotations per minute as well as a changeup.
Colorado has 16 more picks on Monday in Rounds 5 through 20.
Round 5, No. 138 — OF Cameron Nelson, Wake Forest. Nelson had a rough freshman season at Wake Forest, hitting just .163 in 50 games, with 28 starts. He also pitched in nine games. But his hitting improved significantly in a small sample size in ’25, batting .318 in 27 games (19 starts). There’s not much power in his approach, as he only had 12 extra-base hits in college.
This story will be updated.