The Rockies made a play for pitching in the 2025 Major League Rule 5 Draft.
Colorado selected Tigers right-handed reliever prospect RJ Petit on Wednesday with the first overall pick of the draft. Petit, a 14th-round pick out of Charleston Southern University in 2021, has a 3.40 ERA over five minor-league seasons.
Petit is coming off a strong 2025 performance in which he posted a 2.71 ERA in 47 games (two starts) across Double-A and Triple-A. His selection indicates that Colorado sees him as a piece to its bullpen in 2026. Petit is capable of racking up strikeouts, as he averaged 12.9 Ks per nine in his 20 games in Triple-A last season, and has a 10.4 K rate in his Minor League Baseball career.
The 6-foot-8 Petit has a fastball that can run up to 98 mph, plus a changeup and a slider. Petit had a 51% ground-ball rate in his time in Triple-A in 2025, which was also surely attractive to the Rockies.
The order of the Rule 5 Draft, which is designed to get prospects whose path to the majors is blocked in their current organization a shot with a different club, is determined by the reverse order of last season’s standings.
Teams must have room on the 40-man roster to make a pick, and pay $100,000 to select a player in the major-league phase of the draft. If that player isn’t on the active roster for the full upcoming season, he must be offered back to his old team for $50,000. Players selected in the minor-league phase of the draft aren’t subject to roster restrictions.
With the top pick in the minor-league phase of the draft, the Rockies selected Mets right-handed pitching prospect TJ Shook. A starter-turned-reliever in New York’s organization, Shook had a 3.24 ERA in 33 Double-A games last season. Like Petit, Shook is also a high-strikeout pitcher with 10.3 Ks per nine in five minor-league seasons.
The Rockies entered Wednesday’s draft with 37 players on its roster, and now sit at 38 with the addition of Petit.
Of the Rockies’ top 30 prospects as ranked by MLB Pipeline, six Colorado minor-leaguers are eligible for this year’s Rule 5 Draft. Players who turned pro at 18 or younger in 2021, or at 19 or older in 2022, are eligible for selection if they aren’t on a club’s 40-man roster.
The Rockies protected three of those six eligible top prospects by placing right-hander Gabriel Hughes, outfielder Sterlin Thompson and left-hander Welinton Herrera on their 40-man roster on Nov. 18. They left right-hander Yujanyer Herrera, left-hander Michael Prosecky and shortstop Andy Perez unprotected.
Colorado had two minor-league pitchers selected by other teams in the minor-league phase of the draft in right-handers Luke Taggart (Tigers) and Brady Hill (Nationals).
Prior to Wednesday, Colorado had selected 12 players in the Rule 5 Draft in its history, but none of those players made a significant impact. Of note, they got right-hander reliever Anthony Molina from the Rays in 2023, right-hander Tommy Kahnle from the Yankees in 2013 and infielder Luis A. González from Cleveland in 2003.
Molina had a 6.96 ERA in 52 games across 2024 and 2025 before being waived at the end of the season, and then claimed by the Brewers. Kahnle had a 4.41 ERA in 90 relief appearances in 2014 and 2015 before being traded to the White Sox that winter. And the utilityman González batted .283 with the Rockies from 2004 to 2006.
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