On Tuesday, the new Colorado Rockies management hired Tigers director of pitching Gabe Ribas as an assistant pitching coach on new manager Warren Schaeffer’s staff. On Wednesday, they selected Tigers reliever RJ Petit with the first overall pick in the Rule 5 draft.
This was expected, as Petit was one of the top names to watch on most lists of Rule 5 players to select, though him going first overall is a bit surprising perhaps. The six-foot-eight right-hander has taken a long time to develop since
the Tigers drafted him out of Charleston Southern College back in the 2021 amateur draft in the 14th round.
Petit has a pretty good fourseam/sinker combo that sits around 94-95 mph and a good slider that he has impressive command of, while the fastball command is more average. He developed his changeup into a better offering last year as well, but it’s not an overpowering pitch mix. Still, Petit throws a lot of strikes and gets his share of ground balls. He graduated from Double-A to Triple-A Toledo last summer, and increased slider usage and better command overall saw his strikeout rate spike up 34.4 percent, though he had a little more trouble than usual with walks as he got used to both the major league baseball and the ABS challenge system at that level. It was a small sample, but enough that I expected him to get a look in September. That call never came, and the Tigers chose to leave him unprotected and thus the player that would almost certainly be picked in the draft.
The Rockies will have to keep Petit on their active roster all season in order to claim his full rights. If things don’t work him out, they have to get him through waivers and then offer him back to the Tigers. If no one takes him, the Rockies would then be able to option him to the minor leagues.
In 2024, the Cubs selected infielder Gage Workman from the Tigers, only to return him last summer as he struggled badly to hit major league pitching. The Miami Marlins selected catching prospect Liam Hicks, and that went better as Hicks was good for 1.0 fWAR in his major league debut and is now a full-fledged Marlin.
The Tigers will have the 22nd pick in the Rule 5 draft, but with a full 40-man roster don’t seem likely to make a pick. They decided to pass on the Rule 5 draft last year, and probably this year will be no different.
