When the Colorado Rockies’ revamped front office under new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta entered this week’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida with multiple open spots on the 40-man roster, it was clear the rebuilding team intended to make selections in this year’s Rule 5 draft.
The final major part of the Winter Meetings, the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft allows organizations with space on their 40-man roster to take unprotected players from another club. That player must
not only be placed on their new team’s 40-man roster, they must also remain on the active 26-man roster for the entirety of the upcoming season. The selected player cannot be optioned or outrighted without being exposed to waivers, and must be offered back to their original team should waivers be cleared.
There is also a minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft, in which unprotected players below Triple-A can be selected. Players selected in the minor league phase do not carry the same restrictions as those taken in the major league phase. Teams can also protect players from the minor league phase by ensuring they are on the minor league reserve list.
Prior to this year’s Rule 5 draft, the Rockies selected the contracts of left-handed reliever Welinton Herrera (no. 21 PuRP), right-handed starting pitcher Gabriel Hughes (no. 11 PuRP), and outfielder Sterlin Thompson (no. 18 PuRP). This added them to the Rockies’ 40-man roster and protected them from being picked up by other teams.
The Rockies had three players—all pitchers—claimed in the minor league phase of the draft.
The first pitcher claimed was 28-year-old right-handed reliever Luke Taggart to the Detroit Tigers. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent from the University of Oklahoma—by way of Incarnate Ward—Taggart had a strong first full professional season in 2022 with a 2.53 ERA over 32 innings and 44 strikeouts with the High-A Spokane Indians. Unfortunately, Taggart missed almost all of the next two seasons due to injury. He returned to Spokane in 2025 and struggled, posting a 6.64 ERA over 19 appearances. However, he’s been performing outstandingly in winter ball. With the Puerto Rican winter league’s Criollos de Caguas he has yet to give up an earned run in 12 appearances and has 22 to three walks in 16 innings of work.
The Rockies also lost right-handed reliever Brady Hill to the Washington Nationals and right-handed pitcher Bryan Mena to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Hill, 25, was a 15th round pick of the Rockies in 2022 and has yet to pitch above Low-A. He spent the bulk of his last three seasons with the Low-A Fresno Grizzlies as a late innings reliever. In 2025 he posted a 6.11 ERA over 41 appearances and struck out 65 batters to 37 walks over 45 2/3 innings of work.
Mena, 21, was signed out of the Dominican Republic as a member of the Rockies’ 2021 international draft class. He spent all of 2025 with the Low-A Fresno Grizzlies as both a starter and reliever. In 29 appearances—including 18 starts—he posted a 5.62 ERA with 97 strikeouts to 57 walks over 107 1/3 innings.
The Rockies also claimed a player in the minor league phase in right-handed pitcher Franklin Todd “TJ” Shook from the New York Mets organization.
Shook, 27, was originally signed by the Milwaukee Brewers organization as an undrafted free agent in 2020 but was unable to make his professional debut until 2021. Largely a starter in the Brewers’ farm system, he worked his way up to Double-A Biloxi before he was traded to the New York Mets in 2024. The Mets converted him to a reliever and he started to take off. Shook made 33 relief appearances with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies in 2025 with a 2.34 ERA and 56 strikeouts to 12 walks over 50 innings, helping a dominant squad that would go on to win the Eastern League title.
Shook was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse at the end of the season, where he made three appearances and gave up two earned runs over six innings. He struck out five batters, but also walked five.
The true prize of the Rule 5 draft came in the major league phase. Thanks to the Rockies’ abysmal record in 2025, they had their pick of unprotected players with the first overall selection. With that pick, the Rockies took tremendous right-handed reliever Robert George “RJ” Petit from the Detroit Tigers.
Petit, 26, stands a towering 6’8” and weighs 300 pounds without including his equally tremendous mustache. The mountainous reliever was a two-time All-Big South First Team selection at Charleston Southern University before the Tigers picked him in the 14th round of the 2021 draft.
Petit has had just one season in which he held a combined ERA higher than 4.00, and it came in 2021 when he made just six appearances. Since then, he has quietly assembled a very strong minor league résumé despite never being ranked a top 30 prospect in the Tigers’ system.
He made his Triple-A debut in 2025, making 20 appearances with the Toledo Mud Hens after a mid-season promotion. With Toledo he struck out 33 batters and held a 2.74 ERA over 23 innings of work.
“From a strictly performance-based evaluation,“ wrote Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes and JJ Cooper, ”Petit checks a number of boxes. He strikes out batters, shows at least average command, has flashed the ability to generate ground balls at above-average rates and has a solid sample of Triple-A experience. That combination put him in a better bucket than 50% of potential Rule 5 picks.”
The not-so-petite Petit works with a four pitch arsenal. His four-seam fastball generally sits at 95 MPH but can top out at 98 MPH with six and a half feet of extension and up to twelve inches of armside run. He also throws a low-90s two-seam sinking fastball and a plus changeup that sits in the mid-to-high 90s.
Petit’s best pitch is his gyro slider when it comes to missing bats. Described by Baseball America as a “deathball curveball,” the slider sits in the mid-80s with negative vertical break and sweeping action.
Cutting an imposing figure on the mound, Petit slots in as the Rockies’ no. 26 organizational prospect and will immediately look to play a role in the Rockies’ bullpen to start the 2026 season.
New Rockies braintrust ready to begin overhaul after Winter Meetings | MLB.com
With the Winter Meetings now over, the Rockies’ new front office has even more work ahead of them. They not only need to figure out first base, second base, and starting pitching for the upcoming season, but will also need to continue laying out new infrastructure for player development. There are also multiple coaching and player development roles that need to be filled, with potential announcements coming in the next week.
Rockies Notebook: Gm Josh Byrnes, Alon Leichman, 2026 WBC | Just Baseball
Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball was present at the Winter Meetings to keep an eye on the Rockies delegation. He spoke with new general manager Josh Byrnes on a variety of topics, including the role of special assistant Charlie Blackmon. Lyons also learned more about new pitching coach Alon Leichman, and discusses potential players for the upcoming 2026 edition of the World Baseball Classic.
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