Colorado Rockies On SI

Rockies Select 6-Foot-8 Right Hander With First Pick in Rule 5 Draft

Looking for pitching help anywhere, the Colorado Rockies grabbed a towering RHP in Rule 5 Draft.

Tobey Schulman

Detroit Tigers right-handed reliever RJ Petit hangs out on the field before a game with the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League on November 2, 2023 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Detroit Tigers right-handed reliever RJ Petit hangs out on the field before a game with the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League on November 2, 2023 in Scottsdale, Arizona. / Evan Petzold / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The Colorado Rockies are a team that has always looked towards the draft to help add some pitching depth within their farm system. They had the chance to do just this in December during the first round of the Major League phase of the 2025 Rule 5 Draft.

After not being protected by the Detroit Tigers, their No. 30 prospect by MLB Pipeline would find himself being selected with the first overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft by the Rockies. RJ Petit, a towering 6-foot-8, 300-pound right-hander will look to help a much-needed pitching staff in Colorado.

Petit is coming off a great 2025 season, where he appeared in 47 games between Double-A Erie and Triple-A Toledo. In that stretch, he'd record a 2.44 ERA in 66.1 innings pitched, holding hitters to a .200 batting average against, with a 1.06 WHIP.

In his final 23 innings pitched with Triple-A Toledo, Petit would post a 2.74 ERA, with a .224 batting average against, and some even better underlying numbers. At the Triple-A level, Petit excelled at limiting hard-hit contact while obtaining swing-and-miss at an incredibly efficient rate.

When analyzing his advanced profile on Prospect Savant, Petit ranked in the 95th percentile with an average exit velocity of 83,7 MPH, 94th percentile with a 23.4% Hard-Hit rate, and the 92nd percentile with a 34.4% K% in Triple-A.

Petit proved to be an arm in 2025 that could pound the strike zone, and obtain swing-and-miss within the zone. That alone should excite the Rockies about who they just selected. When it comes to his pitch-mix, his slider has proved to play very well.

With Triple-A Toledo, Petit used his slider at a 41.5% rate, and that didn't seem to help hitters catch up. According to Prospect Savant, hitters had just a .108 expected batting average against the slider, with an 11.76% Hard-Hit rate.

Hitters didn't have much more of a chance against his 4-seamer as well. While Petit used it at a 23.5% rate, hitters had a worse expected batting average at just .073. Petit generated a ton of whiff with both the slider and 4-seamer, with the slider posting a 41.7% Whiff% and the 4-seamer at 33.3%.

A 26-year-old with a near 7-foot frame was too intriguing to pass up for Colorado. When looking more into his stuff and his track record this season especially in Triple-A, you can see an arm that can assist the Rockies in its Major League bullpen.

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Tobey Schulman
TOBEY SCHULMAN

Tobey Schulman is a freelance writer currently covering baseball in the South Florida area, independently on X and SubStack. Prior to freelancing, Tobey was a writer for The Skippers View, covering both Major and Minor League Baseball. Over the past year, he has grown a following of almost 10,000 on X, while covering all things across the sport, both professional and amateur. In his free time he produces and live streams a podcast ‘Inside The Diamond’, where he co-hosts player interviews, breakdowns, and game watch parties.

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