2025 Rule 5 Draft Preview 7.0: Top 85 Players Who Could Be Picked
Image credit: Yordanny Monegro (Tom Priddy/Four Seam Images)
At long last, it’s time for the 2025 MLB Rule 5 draft, which begins at 2 p.m. ET at the Winter Meetings in Orlando.
Below, you can find our complete preview of players with chances to get picked. Contributors include J.J. Cooper, Geoff Pontes, Jacob Rudner, Carlos Collazo, Josh Norris, Matt Eddy and Ian Cundall.
More Rule 5 Draft Coverage
- Explaining How The Rule 5 Draft Works
- What Do Teams Target In The Rule 5 Draft?
- Every Player Eligible For The 2025 Rule 5 Draft
- How Often Do Rule 5 Picks Stick With Their New Teams?
- Rule 5 Draft Protection Analysis For Every Teamsu
- 10 First-Round Picks Left Unprotected For 2025
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As a reminder, players picked in the MLB Rule 5 draft must be carried on the selecting team’s active MLB roster without being optioned to the minors for the entire following season. Teams pay $100,000 to select a major league Rule 5 pick. If they offer the player back to his original team, that team has the option of accepting the player’s return and giving back $50,000 of the Rule 5 fee.
Editor’s Note: Gavin Collyer has been removed, as he is currently a MiLB free agent.
Here is a quick key to find all players written up for the Rule 5 draft and their current organization. You can click on each player group to see all the players in that category or use the table below to click and jump straight to that player’s report.
- Top Players Available
- Relievers With Performance
- Big Stuff Grades But Poor Control
- Starters Who Could Be Converted To Relievers
- Bat-First Positional Players
- Glove-First Positional Players
- Backup Backstops
Top Players Available
These are names that have come up multiple times in conversations with representatives in multiple organizations through our Rule 5 draft reporting over the last few weeks. These players have a high likelihood of being selected.
Yordanny Monegro, RHP, Red Sox
Every year at the 40-man deadline, there’s a talented pitcher who goes unprotected due to injury. This season, that pitcher might just be Monegro. Teams are able to stash players on the long-term injured list for an entire season, delaying their need to keep a player selected in the Rule 5 on the active roster. That’s key for Monegro, as he had Tommy John surgery in late August 2025 and will miss all of 2026.
Prior to his injury, Monegro had been superb over eight starts with Double-A Portland, pitching to a 2.34 FIP and 2.67 ERA with a 57% groundball rate, 35.8% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. Had it not been for the injury, there’s a case to be made that Monegro might have pitched himself to the majors by the end of 2025. His combination of swing-and-miss stuff, command and the ability to generate a high rate of groundball outs makes him a virtual lock on performance alone.
Factoring in his injury timeline, it would be surprising not to see Monegro picked. He has plus stuff with a plus slider and curveball that he mixes with a sinker, a four-seam fastball and a changeup.
Zach McCambley, RHP, Marlins
McCambley’s raw stuff is modest, but his performance in the upper minors in 2025 could prompt a club to consider him for an early 2026 look.
The 6-foot-2 righty, a 2020 third-round pick from Coastal Carolina, turned in a 2.90 ERA with 83 strikeouts and 22 walks over 62 innings, including a 3.32 ERA in 40.2 Triple-A frames. His mid-80s slider was the centerpiece, showing sweep and producing a 51% miss rate with a 34% chase rate, while a high-80s cutter added another bat-missing option with a 34% whiff rate. He also mixed in a four-seam fastball that reached 97 mph but typically sat 93-95 with limited carry. McCambley’s 33.1% strikeout rate was a career high while his 8.8% walk rate marked the lowest since the 26-year-old’s debut season in 2021.
RJ Petit, RHP, Tigers
A 14th-round pick out of Charleston Southern in 2021, Petit reached Triple-A in 2025, racking up 20 appearances with Toledo. Over 47 total appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A, he pitched to a 2.44 ERA, 2.94 FIP and 3.35 xFIP. During his time in Triple-A, Petit continued to perform with a 2.74 ERA, 3.19 FIP and 3.18 xFIP while generating ground balls at a 51% rate. Most importantly, he collected strikeouts and limited walks, punching out 29.5% of batters faced while walking just 8.2%.
From a strictly performance-based evaluation, 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 puts him in a bucket better than 50% of potential Rule 5 picks.
Petit shows the prerequisite stuff to match his performance, mixing a four-seam fastball, sinker, slider and changeup. His four-seamer sits 95-97 mph and touches 98 at peak with six and a half feet of extension and 11-12 inches of armside run. His two-seamer sits 93-95 mph with true sink and heavy armside run, averaging 15-17 inches. Petit’s slider is his best bat-missing pitch, and despite its slider tag, it looks like a mid-80s deathball curveball with negative vertical break and about five inches of sweep. Petit’s changeup is used nearly 1:1 with his slider and features good vertical separation off his fastball, though it’s on the firmer side at 88 mph.
All in all, Petit has one of the most intriguing profiles in the Rule 5 draft.
Matthew Wood, C, Brewers
The Brewers drafted Wood in the fourth round in 2022 out of Penn State. Over the last three seasons, he has performed better than his numbers would suggest based on underlying Statcast data. After spending parts of each of the last three seasons with High-A Wisconsin, Wood made the jump to Double-A in 2025. Over 59 games with Biloxi, he hit .271/.371/.415 with six home runs and 30 walks to 33 strikeouts.
Under-the-hood data really tells the story, though, as Wood ran a 10.7% in-zone whiff rate in 2025 with a 17% chase rate and good hard-hit and pullside launch angles. His 88.4 mph average exit velocity and 103.2 mph 90th percentile EV are fringe-average but good enough to provide at least 40 power to pair with 55-to-60 grade plate skills. Wood caught 78 games last season and shows enough ability behind the plate to fit as a rotational catcher.
Carter Baumler, RHP, Orioles
Over the last five years, injuries have limited Baumler to essentially one fully-healthy season. That came this year after he missed the second half of 2024 and the first month of the 2025 season recovering from a shoulder injury. Baumler worked regularly out of the bullpen throughout the season. However, he didn’t pitch on back-to-back days and tended to see 4-7 days of rest in between outings. That is likely to be a disqualifier for a team looking to select him, but he still has some interesting traits to discuss.
Baumler’s 2025 second half was outstanding, as he allowed just one run across his final 17.1 innings spanning 14 outings. In fact, post-promotion to Double-A Chesapeake, Baumler didn’t allow a run in his six appearances in the Eastern League spanning 7.2 innings. Over his strong second half, he struck out 25 batters while allowing six walks and seven hits. Batters hit just .125 against him during that stretch, and he ran a groundball rate north of 40%.
Beyond Baumler’s performance this season, his stuff has also made a full recovery. He mixes three pitches in a four-seam fastball, slider and curveball. His four-seamer sits 95-96 mph, touching 98 with elite vertical break, over 10 inches of armside run and an extremely flat vertical approach angle of -4.12. Baumler creates only fringy extension, but his lower arm slot and 5-foot-7 release height allow the plane on his fastball to play up.
Baumler’s primary secondary is his curveball. It sits 83-85 mph—plus velocity for a true curveball—with heavy two-plane break. He generates whiffs at a rate of 32% while running a 39% chase rate against the pitch. It’s a solid one-two combo of pitches that should consistently get results.
Jose Rodriguez, RHP, Dodgers
When it comes to the ideal template for a Rule 5 pick, Rodriguez checks a lot of boxes. He’s tall, physical, comes complete with a deceptive delivery and outlier pitches. The 24-year-old signed out of Mexico in 2019 and has wound his way through the system. He reached Triple-A for the first time in 2025 and struck out 84 hitters in 54 innings between a pair of upper-level stops.
Rodriguez starts his motion from the stretch, turns his torso away from the hitter, plunges his arm deep enough that the baseball is nearly parallel to his ankle before uncoiling and delivering. His long levers create huge extension, which ranges between 6.8 and 7.1 feet throughout his arsenal. He combats hitters with four- and two-seam fastballs in the mid-to-upper 90s as well as a slider and changeup that each racked up miss rates of better than 51%. His changeup, in fact, the 65.4% miss rate on his changeup was fifth in the sport among those thrown more than 100 times. His slider is nearly as wicked, with sharp, straight drop that elicits chases at a rate of nearly 30%.
His walk rate is higher than ideal at 14.2%, and his long limbs and complicated delivery doesn’t make it seem like he’ll ever have pinpoint control or command. Nevertheless, his stuff is loud enough that a team might be willing to take a chance and add him to their bullpen.
Daniel Susac, C, Athletics
The Athletics’ first-round pick in 2022, Susac hit .275/.349/.483 for Triple-A Las Vegas in 2025. That’s not as impressive as it may initially seem, however, due to the favorable hitting environment. The average Las Vegas hitter hit .288/.378/.467. But Susac is a solid hitter with one potentially fatal flaw—he doesn’t know when to keep the bat on his shoulder. He actually has solid bat control, but his 26.7% strikeout rate comes from his over-aggressiveness. Defensively, he posted above-average pop times, and he’s an average blocker.
Alexander Alberto, RHP, Rays
Signed out of the Dominican Republic in November 2019, Alberto has only reached High-A. He spent three seasons in the Florida Complex League, finally earning a promotion to Low-A in 2024. Alberto has been a tremendous performer the last two seasons across both levels of A-ball. Over 16 appearances in 2024 with Low-A Charleston, he pitched to a 1.59 ERA, striking out 23.3% of batters faced while walking 11.1%. Across 48.2 innings primarily in High-A this year, he struck out 30.6% of opposing hitters while walking 10%. His 2.87 FIP and 3.18 xFIP support his 2.59 ERA, and he generated ground balls at a rate of 54.4% in 2025. Where Alberto really stands out is with his pitch mix, as has a cache of desirable traits. He throws a true cut-fastball that sits 97-99 mph and touches 101.4 with just a hair under seven feet of extension on average. He commands his fastball well (56.1% zone rate) and generates high rates of whiffs in-zone. His primary secondary is a sweepy, mid-to-high-80s slider with a little drop and 5-10 inches of horizontal break, as Alberto shows the ability to manipulate the pitch. He shows true swing-and-miss stuff running a swinging-strike rate of 15.67% in 2025. His combination of whiffs and ground balls give him true versatility in getting outs.
Hayden Mullins, LHP, Red Sox
In a pitching-rich Red Sox system, it’s easy for talented pitchers to slide under the radar. In Mullins’ case, the organization’s depth may have kept him off the 40-man roster.
Drafted out of Auburn in the 12th round in 2022, Mullins dealt with a litany of injuries as an amateur. He had Tommy John surgery in 2022 and returned to the mound in August 2023. He dealt with shoulder fatigue in May of this year but returned and remained on a regular schedule. Mullins made 18 starts with Double-A Portland, pitching to a 2.44 ERA, 3.79 FIP and 27.7% strikeout rate.
Mullins meets several benchmarks of pitchers taken in the Rule 5 draft based on production. Additionally, his stuff is above-average with a good blend of unique characteristics. Mullins generates 6-foot-7 average extension—an outlier number for his 6-foot frame. This allows him to create a flat vertical approach angle on his fastball and more ride than expected from his arm slot. Hitters struggled against Mullins’ fastball, running a 35% whiff rate against the pitch in 2025.
His secondaries consist of a higher-spin low-80s gyro slider, a high-spin upper-70s sweeper and a changeup with good vertical separation from his fastball. It’s a well-rounded arsenal that can drive lots of whiffs.
Jeremy Wu-Yelland, LHP, Red Sox
Early in his career, injuries and control were the main things holding back Wu-Yelland. He put things together in 2025, registering the highest strikeout rate and lowest walk rate of his career, while making it to the high minors for the first time. He had never had a strikeout rate above 27.4% or walk rate below 12.8% for a full season prior to 2025. This year between High-A and Double-A he had a 3.15 ERA while striking out 37.6% of hitters and walking only 8.5% of hitters.
The 6-foot-2 lefty throws from a lower-three-quarters arm slot and is a short strider who comes across his body. It’s a unique look for hitters and he can really spin the ball. Wu-Yelland relies on a three-pitch mix and pitches off his 88-91 mph cut-slider. He has advanced command of it and while it is not a major whiff pitch, it does generate chase and weak contact. His mid-90s fastball operated as a strong compliment generating a 43% whiff rate. It has a flat approach angle and by limiting its use he can mask his control issues as it registered only a 47% in-zone rate in 2025. Wu-Yelland rounds out his arsenal with a 79-82 mph sweeper with a spin rate over 2800 rpm. He also struggles to throw it in the zone, but it grades well in models and generates whiffs.
Relievers With Performance
These pitchers hit multiple historical benchmarks for Rule 5 draft picks based on performance. All are potential picks but we haven’t seen significant buzz for them yet.
Matt Pushard, RHP, Marlins
Pushard fits the Rule 5 target profile as a late-blooming, Triple-A-tested righthander coming off his age-27 season. He logged a 3.61 ERA with 73 strikeouts to 23 walks over 62.1 innings and held steady with a fastball that sat 94-96 mph and touched 97 while producing a 34% miss rate and 42% chase rate. He leans on a sweepy slider and a curveball with occasional changeups and cutters mixed in.
Pushard ended his year on a high note with 11.1 scoreless innings during Jacksonville’s run to a Triple-A title, reinforcing his appeal as a plug-and-play relief option.
Blake Burkhalter, RHP, Braves
The Braves drafted Burkhalter out of Auburn with the 76th pick in 2022. He was one of the better college relievers in the country at the time.
His 2023 season was wiped out because of Tommy John surgery, and the Braves converted him to a starting role in 2024. The starting experiment ended in late July when Burkhalter moved back into a reliever role, something for which his high-effort delivery always seemed better suited. In 103 innings between Double-A Columbus and Triple-A Gwinnett, Burkhalter posted RPa 3.32 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. He did add about a half tick of fastball velocity on average while working in a reliever role, but his stuff didn’t make the jump one might expect, and his results were similar, or marginally worse, in the second half of the season.
Burkhalter sits around 94 mph and will touch 98 with a cut-ride fastball. His best non-fastball is a cutter in the 88-91 mph range with a similar movement profile. Atlanta has attempted to give him a second breaking ball to create a different look. He’s struggled to find a quality slider and experimented with a curveball more in 2025, though neither pitch looks like an above-average offering. He did make some strides with an upper-80s kick-changeup that has splitter-esque movement and could serve as a reliable offspeed option to complement the four-seam/cutter combo.
Harrison Cohen, RHP, Yankees
Cohen’s walk rate is a touch on the high side, but he has weapons to get hitters to swing and miss. The 26-year-old George Washington alum was also part of a 2022 Cotuit team in the Cape Cod League that has so far produced seven big leaguers. If Cohen is selected and sticks, he’ll be the first pitcher from that group.
The Yankees signed Cohen as an undrafted free agent in 2022, and he spent this past season between Double-A and Triple-A. The righthander has a frenetic, deceptive delivery that includes a low release height, high leg kick and short action out front. Toward the end of the year, he minimized a hand break that saw him take the ball completely out of his glove with his hands above his head, then tap it back into the glove at the top of his chest before removing it again at the beginning of his arm stroke.
As for his pitch mix, Cohen works with a four-seam fastball in the low 90s with roughly 18 inches of induced vertical break, a breaking pitch that rides the line between a cutter and a slider and a changeup. Both his breaking ball and change arrive in the mid 80s. The cutter and changeup each got chase rates of greater than 30% and miss rates between 43-48%. He struggles to land any of his pitches in the zone, however, which could keep savvier hitters from biting on versions designed to get chases.
Jared Southard, RHP, Angels
One of the more intriguing Rule 5 names is Southard, who has a high likelihood of being selected. Taken in the 12th round in 2022 out of Texas, Southard reached Triple-A in 2025 making 27 relief appearances with Salt Lake.
A relief-only prospect, Southard has a good mix of upper-minors production and stuff. He pitched to a 4.23 ERA in the Pacific Coast League, striking out 25.8% of batters faced against a 8.6% walk rate. He posted those strikeout-to-walk rates while running a 56.4% groundball rate. He mixes a mid-90s sinker with true sink alongside two breaking balls with spin rates in the 2800-2900 rpm range on average. It’s a powerful arsenal with intriguing traits across his pitch mix.
Southard’s blend of out-generating skills paired with above-average stuff makes him an intriguing potential Rule 5 pick.
Peyton Pallette, RHP, White Sox
Once upon a time, Pallette was considered a potential top 10 draft pick entering his junior season at Arkansas. Instead, he had Tommy John surgery in 2022 and missed all of his draft-eligible season, leading the White Sox to draft him in the second round and sign him for $1.5 million.
In 2024, the White Sox moved Pallette to the bullpen, where he’s found success over the last two seasons. The righthander reached Triple-A in 2025, making 36 appearances with Charlotte and pitching to a 4.36 ERA with 54 strikeouts across 43.1 innings.
Pallette might be an easy plug-and-play option for a team looking for upside arms in the bullpen. He mixes a mid-90s four-seam fastball that misses bats with a high-spin, two-plane curveball, a mid-80s slurvy slider and a mid-80s changeup with good vertical separation off his fastball.
Tyler Vogel, RHP, Giants
Over 50 relief appearances in 2025, Vogel pitched to a 2.88 ERA and 3.56 FIP with a 25.4% strikeout rate against a 10.2% walk rate. He shows the ability to not only miss bats but also drive a heavy rate of ground balls (45.3% in 2025).
A former 12th-round pick out of Jacksonville back in 2022, Vogel opened the season with High-A Eugene before jumping to Triple-A Sacramento briefly and then to Double-A Richmond in a whirlwind season.
Vogel has limited upper-minors experience (18 total innings), but he does have multiple interesting characteristics. He generates on average of 6-feet-7 inches of extension from his six-foot frame, creating unique plane on his fastball. He mixes a splitter, slider and curveball with the splitter being his primary swing-and-miss offering and boasting a whiff rate above 40% in 2025.
Ben Peoples, RHP, White Sox
The White Sox acquired Peoples from the Rays in the Adrian Houser trade alongside infielder Curtis Mead and Duncan Davitt. This will be the third-consecutive Rule 5 draft Peoples will be eligible for, but it’s the first time he has a realistic shot of being selected.
After years as a starter, Peoples made the move to the bullpen in 2025, making 45 appearances between Triple-A Durham and Charlotte and pitching to a 3.33 ERA over 48.2 innings. He runs a higher walk rate but shows a natural ability to limit hard contact. His hard-hit rate allowed this season was in the top 85th percentile among Triple-A pitchers. While his strikeout numbers are fairly pedestrian (23% strikeout rate), he did run a 15% swinging-strike rate.
Peoples primarily throws two pitches in a mid-to-high-90s cut-ride four-seam fastball and an upper-80s cut-slider. The fastball is above-average, as he’s able to get 17-18 inches of induced vertical break from a 5-foot-9 release height, generating just under seven feet of extension. The pitch ran a 25.9% whiff rate and a 26.1% hard-hit rate this season—both strong markers against a fastball. The slider also had strong results, as well as a .285 xwOBA against.
It’s a good one-two punch, and Peoples’ upper-minors resume might make him an easy transition for a team looking for a one-inning reliever who can miss bats.
Yondrei Rojas, RHP, Blue Jays
The undersized Rojas enjoyed a breakout 2025 campaign, as he reached Double-A after spending parts of three seasons in Low-A. He has only 14 innings of upper-minors experience, but the results were excellent, as he allowed just one run while holding batters to a .111 batting average against. His 38.3% strikeout rate in High-A to begin the season did plummet to 21.6% in Double-A, but his whiff rate stayed fairly stagnant.
Rojas checks several boxes typical of Rule 5 picks, including generating ground balls at a rate of 53.5% with a K-BB mark of 24.8%. He mixes five pitches in a cut-ride four-seam fastball, a sinker, slider, changeup and sweeper. His primary pitch is the cut four-seam fastball, which sits 95-97 mph and touches 98 at peak. It features ride and moderate cut from a five-and-a-half foot release height with flat plane and plus extension for his 5-foot-10 frame. Rojas’ primary breaking ball is his upper-80s cutter that generates solid miss rates. The changeup and sweeper are near antipodes of each other, with each moving a foot opposite of the other.
Rojas throws lots of strikes, has power and unique release traits. His lack of upper-minors experience, however, might prevent him from being selected.
Saul Teran, RHP, Phillies
Teran had a phenomenal season in 2025, reaching Double-A in the final weeks of the season and pitching to a 1.30 ERA across 40 appearances between three levels. At 23 years old, he has little upper-minors pitching experience, but he shows a good balance of control and swing-and-miss stuff.
Teran mixes four pitches in a slider, four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball and a cutter. The slider is his primary pitch, sitting 86-88 mph with baby sweeper shape. He shows the ability to command the pitch, running high strike and zone rates while boasting chase and whiff rates in the 38-40% range.
Grant Hartwig, RHP, Twins
It’s always unlikely a player who just signed a MiLB contract will be picked in the Rule 5 draft. After all, if a team really wanted the player, they could have just offered an MLB contract without worrying about the Rule 5 roster rules. But in the interest of completeness, it’s worth mentioning Hartwig, as he has a bit of MLB experience (42 innings with the Mets in 2023 and 2024) and solid stuff. Recently signed by the Twins as a MiLB free agent, Hartwig is a sidearming sinker-slider reliever with a 94-96 mph sinker and a mid-80s sweepy slider. He’ll likely pitch in the majors in 2026, even if he’s less likely to be picked in the Rule 5 draft.
Joshua Cornielly, RHP, Mets
Cornielly checks a number of the boxes that Rule 5 pitching picks usually meet. He has upper-level MiLB experience, going 5-3, 3.93 with 55 innings for Double-A Binghamton and having reached Triple-A Syracuse for one appearance. He clears the 26.2% strikeout rate Rule 5 pitchers usually meet (26.7%), and he has the sub-10% walk rate teams seem to look for, as well (8.3%). Cornielly is a well-built righthander with an over-the-top release. His 93-95 mph fastball has above-average life, and his 86-88 mph power slider is effective. He throws strikes with both of them, and then uses a low-80s splitter as a chase pitch.
Trent Baker, RHP, Twins
Baker is a perfect example of why we are seeing more pitchers picked in Rule 5 drafts, as there are a ton of upper-level pitching prospects with low-leverage relief potential. He was a Twins MiLB Rule 5 pick last year. He went to Double-A Wichita, going 2-2, 2.86 in 50 innings (11 starts) before jumping to Triple-A St. Paul, where he went 2-3, 4.96 largely out of the bullpen. He’s shown above-average control (7.7% walk rate) with solid strikeout rates (24%), and he’s got solid arm strength. He sits 93-95 mph with his fastball, but he can touch 97 when needed. He needs to improve his feel for locating his slider and changeup in order to match his ability to spot his fastball.
Jean Henriquez, RHP, Orioles
Henriquez’s resume would make it seem impossible that a team would consider picking him until you watch him pitch. He’s 32 years old and has a total of 57 innings in affiliated ball. He threw in the Dominican Summer League in 2014 and 2015 for the Rays. He was released in 2015, and hadn’t pitched professionally anywhere else until he started pitching for Aguilas in the Dominican Winter League this offseason. He has a herky-jerky, almost-sidearm delivery that makes it hard to time him, and he’s been peppering the zone with 95-98 mph sinkers and a high-80s splitter that is filthy at its best. Henriquez is 1-0, 1.56 with a 2.7% walk rate and 24% strikeout rate in 17 innings over 10 appearances in winter ball. Though his situation is unique, there is some precedent for a player like this getting picked in the Rule 5 draft, as the Cardinals picked Wilking Rodriguez in 2022 at a point where he was eight years removed from his last appearance in affiliated ball.
Carson Coleman, RHP, Yankees
Coleman was drafted by the Rays in the 33rd round in 2019 out of Kentucky. He went back to school but went unselected in 2020’s five-round draft. After two seasons in the minor leagues, Coleman was selected by the Rangers in the 2023 Rule 5 draft. Elbow and shoulder surgeries kept him from ever throwing an official pitch with Texas, and he was returned to New York in 2025 and outrighted off the 40-man roster. He pitched 17 dominant innings this past season, showing off a nasty array of pitches in his short return to the mound. He paired four-seam and sinking fastballs in the mid 90s and got grounders at a 55% clip in Double-A. Coleman backed up the fastballs with a pair of breaking balls with similar, sweepy shape and a changeup with hard fade and drop at its best. His delivery is uptempo, and there’s still some rust to knock off with his secondaries. Coleman’s right arm might have more stitches than a baseball itself, but he’s nasty when healthy, and that alone might cajole a club into calling his name.
Jedixson Paez, RHP, Red Sox
Paez has arguably the best control among the Rule 5-eligible pitchers. Nothing he throws is plus, but he locates his 91-92 mph fastball, curveball, sweeper and slider, while his mid-80s changeup is an above-average pitch with plenty of fade. He missed much of 2025 because of a calf injury, which kept him from reaching Double-A. He went 0-3, 2.79 in 19 innings at High-A Salem in April and August. Paez could be more than a bulk-inning reliever if he gains a bit more velocity, but his control and varied arsenal gives him survival skills if picked.
Keagan Gillies, RHP, Orioles
Teams are looking for pitchers who are unusual. Gillies is a bit of a different look with an extreme over-the-top release point combined with excellent extension, thanks in part to his massive 6-foot-8 frame. He has impeccable control of his 85-87 mph slider, which is really his primary pitch. The slider matches well with his 92-94 mph four-seam fastball and a low-80s splitter. Gillies displays a lot of the characteristics of players who get picked in the Rule 5 draft. For example, he has upper-level MiLB experience, going 4-2, 2.68 in 53 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025. He also walks very few hitters (6.2%), strikes out hitters at a solid rate (24.1%) and he keeps the ball in the ballpark. His five home runs allowed this past season was actually a career high.
Wilkin Ramos, RHP, Giants
Ramos is yet another of the MiLB free agents who signed, which means that a team would only pick him if they, for some reason, missed out on landing him as a MiLB free agent. That said, Ramos has some interesting traits as a fastball-slider reliever with exceptional extension (something most teams covet). He’s a skinny 6-foot-5 (he’s listed at 165 pounds) with long levers, and he shows average velocity at 94-95 mph, touching 98. Ramos was 3-2, 1.45 in 50 innings at Double-A Altoona, but he struggled in a brief 15-inning stint at Triple-A Indianapolis (1-2, 6.60).
Hancel Rincon, RHP, Cardinals
Rincon doesn’t have loud stuff by any measure, but what he does have is tremendous success in the upper minors this season. Rincon’s season was cut short by left hip injury, but prior to that, he was on a strong run in his first taste of Double-A. Over 47.1 innings, Rincon struck out 59 batters to 13 walks while pitching to a 3.61 ERA. He mixes three pitches in a four-seam fastball, changeup and slider. His fastball sits 92-94 mph with average ride. While it’s not a bat-missing pitch, it’s well commanded, setting up the rest of his arsenal. Rincon’s low-to-mid-80s gyro slider and his mid-to-high-80s changeup both generate whiffs and chases at high rates. The quality and command of his secondaries drive his success. Perhaps a team thinks Rincon has the requisite command and secondary quality to be worth a rule 5 selection.
Tommy McCollum, RHP, Phillies
McCollum’s fastball and splitter play well together, giving him more success than one might expect for an over-the-top righthanded reliever who sits at 93-95 mph. McCollum works up and down in the zone, using his four-seamer in the middle and up in the zone, and then getting swings and misses on his 85-88 mph splitter. He gets plenty of extension, which helps give him a different look to hitters.
Big Stuff Grades But Poor Control
These players meet the qualifications of Rule 5 picks based on pitch traits and characteristics such as plus extensions, induced vertical break on their four-seam fastballs or outlier high spin rates. These pitchers have MLB-quality stuff but questionable control.
Will Bednar, RHP, Giants
Bednar’s career up to this point can only be described as a disappointment. That said, the 14th-overall pick in the 2021 draft and young brother of all-star reliever David Bednar did enjoy the best professional season of his career in 2025.
The Giants moved Bednar to the bullpen this past season after years spent dealing with debilitating back injuries. His command is poor, grading as a 30 overall. Bednar did post his highest-ever strikeout rate in 2025, punching out 34% of batters faced while running the highest first-strike and called-strike rates of his career.
Bednar also showed the best fastball he’s flashed since his sophomore season at Mississippi State, sitting 94-96 mph on average with 18-19 inches of ride and heavy cut. The fastball ran a 39% whiff rate across all levels and is Bednar’s most effective pitch. His primary secondary is a slider, a lower-80s sweeper with some drop and a foot of horizontal break on average. The pitch ran below-average whiff rates despite a collection of interesting traits. Bednar also mixes in a splitter with average spin rates in the 500-600 rpm range. The pitch wasn’t thrown heavily in 2025 but shows characteristics that could make it a valuable pitch.
Bednar has minimal Triple-A time and major command questions, but the stuff out of the pen could play.
Griff McGarry, RHP, Phillies
This is the second year in a row we’ve highlighted McGarry as a potential Rule 5 pick. Few pitchers in the minors have stuff on the level of McGarry. The Phillies righthander blows up our Stuff+ models with a 121 overall score and a 121 normalized Stuff+ score. His fastball, sweeper, slider and curveball all grade as above-average to plus pitches, per Stuff+.
Stuff aside, McGarry’s bigger question is about his ability to throw strikes with regularity. He posted the best walk rate of his career in 2025, walking 13.9% of batters he faced. It’s still 30-grade control, but he may have gotten to a point where he can be an effective one-inning option who airs it out coming out of the bullpen.
McGarry sits 94-95 mph on his fastball, touching 98 at peak with nearly seven feet of extension and a flat vertical approach angle. His sweeper is a 1/1 outlier, sitting 83-84 mph with an average of 16-17 inches of horizontal break to generate a 61% strike rate, 46% whiff rate and 41% chase rate.
Alimber Santa, RHP, Astros
Over the last four seasons, Santa has sat on the fringes of the Astros’ Top 30 Prospects list. After showing flashes of plus stuff over the early portion of his career, he put together a strong season in 2025. Over 46 appearances spanning 70 innings, he pitched to a 2.31 ERA with a 55.2% groundball rate and a 27.9% walk rate.
Santa has below average command and really struggled with walks during his short stint in Triple-A. Despite this, he shows a good blend of out-generating skills and the ability to induce both ground balls and whiffs. He mixes a mid-to-high-80s slider with heavy cut, a mid-90s fastball with four-seam and sinker variations, as well as a sweeper, curveball and changeup. It’s a deep pitch mix with feel for spin and the ability to move the ball around the zone with a variety of different shapes.
A team could take Santa as a potential low-leverage relief option to start.
Saul Garcia, RHP, Mets
Garcia is a 22-year-old, two-pitch reliever who missed bats up to Double-A in 2025. A 6-foot righthander, he operates from low release height and a near-sidearm slot. His 36.7% strikeout rate was one of the highest among relievers with at least 30 appearances in 2025, though he also walked 14% of batters.
Garcia’s fastball sits about 95 mph and plays up thanks to more than six feet of extension. His mid-80s slider is a good whiff pitch, especially for getting chases, as he doesn’t throw a lot of strikes with it. Garcia was pitching in the Venezuelan League this winter.
Jose Olivares, RHP, Twins
Signed out of Venezuela in January 2021, Olivares boasts some of the best stuff in the Twins’ system at present. He spent all of 2025 with High-A Cedar Rapids, making 22 appearances (21 starts) totaling 90.1 innings. His 4.38 ERA is a bit unlucky per his 3.57 FIP and 3.88 xFIP ERA estimators. He struck out 27.6% of batters while running an impressive 15.1% swinging-strike rate.
Olivares mixes four pitches in a four-seam fastball, cutter, changeup and curveball. The four-seamer is his most-thrown pitch, sitting 95-96 mph and touching 99 with an average of 19-21 inches of induced vertical break and heavy cut. Olivares generates above-average extension, creating a plane on his fastball flatter than you’d anticipate from his 6-foot-1 release height. These fastball characteristics give Olivares a chance to successfully make a jump into a major league bullpen.
His primary secondary is the cutter, which sees more usage than his changeup and curveball combined. The pitch sits 86-88 mph and touches 90 at peak with a cutter breaking ball shape. He commanded it at an average level in 2025, and it generated the highest whiff rate in his arsenal at 44.3%. His changeup, an average pitch with good velocity and vertical separation off his fastball, was landed in the zone regularly.
Olivares’ command is below-average, and he lacks the upper-minors experience typical of a Rule 5 pick, but the stuff might be good enough to intrigue someone.
Austin Smith, RHP, Rockies
The Rockies acquired Smith from the Braves for Tyler Kinley days before the trade deadline this summer and left him unprotected after he made 15 appearances with Double-A Hartford. While he only struck out 12 batters over those 15 appearances, he pitched to a 1.69 ERA.
Smith, a 2021 18th-round pick out of Arizona, posted the highest full-season swinging-strike rate of his career in 2025. Batters hit .209 against him this season with a 39% groundball rate. He lacks Triple-A experience, and up until this season, he had struggled to throw strikes.
Smith boasts big stuff, sitting 95-97 mph on a fastball that touches 99 and generates over seven feet of extension with above-average ride from a five-and-a-half-foot release height. He also throws a slider in the mid 80s with short slider shape and a curveball in the low 80s with two-plane break.
Smith’s lack of Triple-A experience is likely a reason he’s not selected, but he has one of the better fastballs among Rule 5-eligible players.
Samy Natera Jr., LHP, Angels
Natera is one of those players who, the more you learn about his story, the more willing you are to bet on his outlier athleticism and physicality. He didn’t begin pitching competitively until he was 17 years old, landing at New Mexico State, where he spent three seasons working out of the bullpen. During his collegiate days, Natera flashed big strikeout potential but a seriously raw lack of refinement.
The Angels landed Natera in the 17th round of the 2022 draft, and he’s methodically worked his way up the ladder since then. After a strong showing in the Arizona Fall League in 2024, he saw real upper minors experience for the first time in his career. Though his performance was at times uneven due to his well below-average command, Natera was consistently effective, posting a 2.84 ERA, 3.79 FIP and 3.72 xFIP across 57 innings. Natera’s 16.9% walk rate is potentially a non-starter for many teams, but he does show the ability to rack up strikeouts with a 34.3% K-rate in 2025.
The lefthanded Natera primarily mixes two pitches in a four-seam fastball and slider while also very occasionally adding in a splitter. The four-seamer sits 94-95 mph, touching 98 at peak with plus ride and cut and generating around six and a half feet of extension. Natera’s slider is particularly unusual, as it has more ride than the average slider but more sweep than a typical cutter. It’s a unique pitch that, at times, can look like two different pitches at the extreme ends of its movement plots.
There’s a lot of potential development left in Natera despite his age due to his limited experience as a pitcher. It’s possible a team falls in love with his athleticism potential.
Reynaldo Yean, RHP, Dodgers
Yean was the hardest-throwing pitcher in baseball in 2024. He sat at 100 mph and touched 104 that year (105 mph if you round up). If you went back 10-15 years, that would have likely made him the No. 1 pick in the Rule 5 draft by itself, as it helped make Terrell Young the No. 1 pick in 2008. Nowadays, however, teams are more discerning.
Yean’s stuff backed up a tick to where he sat 98-99 in 2025. Obviously, that remains exceptional velocity, and his arm speed helps make his 88-90 mph slider relatively effective despite modest movement. Unfortunately for Yean, teams now like to draft Rule 5 pitchers with upper-level MiLB experience and solid control. And that’s where Yean’s case to get picked slips. He was ineffective with High-A Great Lakes in 2025 because he couldn’t consistently throw his fastball or slider for strikes. Yean’s 26% walk rate in 2025 makes him, at best, a stash candidate for a rebuilding team.
Andrew Moore, RHP, Padres
Drafted by the Mariners out of Chipola (FL.) JC in the 14th round of the 2021 draft, the Mariners dealt Moore to the Reds in the Luis Castillo trade. A little less than three years later, Moore was traded to the Padres for Connor Joe.
Moore has some of the loudest stuff among Rule 5-eligible pitchers. He works with a 95-100 mph fastball and hard 88-90 mph slider, but his 20-grade control makes him an unlikely option.
Raimon Gomez, RHP, Orioles
Much like Reynaldo Yean (see above), Gomez has one of the best arms in baseball. He will touch 104 mph on his best days, and he sits at 99-101. Everything Gomez throws is hard. His slider is a low-90s offering with modest movement but exceptional power. Even his changeup sits at the velocity (low 90s) of some pitchers’ fastballs. Gomez’s lack of Double-A experience and below-average control are red flags that could keep him from being selected, but a team willing to live with some wild outings this year would be getting a very promising long-term reliever.
Evan Reifert, RHP, Rays
Reifert is another potential two-time Rule 5 pick, which opens up the possibility of him declaring for free agency if he’s outrighted. Reifert is coming off a similar season to the one that got him picked a year ago. His control will fall off a cliff every now and then, but he also has long stretches when he can dominate. Reifert’s mid-80s slider is a plus-plus pitch at its best, and he throws it much more than his sinker. He had an absurdly high 60% miss rate in Triple-A with his slider, and opponents hit just .123 against it. His low-90s sinker and four-seamer are much more hittable, but on nights he has feel for his slider, no one is going to touch him. He struck out 38.6% of hitters while walking 14.3%.
Braxton Roxby, RHP, Giants
An undrafted free agent find for the Reds in 2020 when the draft was slashed to five rounds, Roxby was traded to the Giants in the January 2025 deal that sent Taylor Rogers to Cincinnati. His low-80s sweeper is a plus pitch, and it explains why he had an impressive 31.4% strikeout rate. His 94-96 mph four-seam fastball is effective enough, and he also mixes in a hard cutter, sinker and changeup to keep hitters off balance. Roxby dominated the Eastern League (3-3, 1.20 with a .144 opponents average) and then struggled after a promotion to Triple-A Sacramento (2-2, 5.91 and .244 opponents average). His walk rate is acceptable (10.3%), and he has the kind of stuff you see in big league bullpens.
Jerming Rosario, RHP, Dodgers
Rosario moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen in 2025. While he had some success, his control troubles kept him from being a consistent reliever. He went 17, 4.67 for Double-A Tulsa with a high 14.8% walk rate to go with a solid 24.3% strikeout rate. When Rosario is on, he can live just on the edge of the zone, down and away from righthanded hitters, using his mid-90s fastball to set up a biting 82-84 mph slider. But he will also struggle to locate his fastball at times, and his slider will end up too far out of the zone to induce chases.
Dalton Rogers, LHP, Red Sox
Rogers is a funky lefthander with more extension than you’d expect from his 5-foot-11 frame. He creates unique angles on his four-seam fastball, slider and changeup and shows a nice balance of bat-missing ability and ground ball generation skills. Dalton sits 93-94, touching 97 mph with 17-18 inches of induced vertical break from a 5-foot-4 release height. The release and movement creates a flat vertical approach angle that make it a difficult pitch for hitters to barrel. After beginning the season in High-A for a third-consecutive year, Rogers was promoted to Double-A on May 16. He made 18 appearances (15 starts), pitching to a 3.52 ERA over 84.1 innings while striking out 101. The other side of the coin is that Rogers’ control is well below average.
Starters Who Could Be Converted To Relievers
Often, pitchers taken in the Rule 5 draft have spent the previous season as starters only to be moved to the bullpen by their new team. Garrett Whitlock is a perfect example of this, as the Red Sox selected him in the 2020 Rule 5 draft and moved him to a relief role. These players fall into a similar bucket.
Brendan Beck, RHP, Yankees
A second-round pick out of Stanford in 2021, Beck has experienced just two healthy seasons in his four-and-a-half-year professional career. He had Tommy John surgery in September 2021 and missed all of 2022. He returned in June 2023 and made 10 appearances—all but one in High-A—before another elbow injury cost him all of 2024.
Coming into 2025, Beck had thrown just 34 professional innings. In a true comeback story, he dominated over 11 appearances in Double-A this year, pitching to a 1.82 ERA. He was promoted to Triple-A in mid June and performed well across 15 starts spanning 77 innings. By season’s end, Beck had accumulated 131.1 innings with a 3.36 ERA, 3.79 FIP and 3.90 xFIP across the minors’ two highest levels.
Beck’s defining characteristic teams will likely value is his control. He walked just 6.9% of batters faced this season with good zone rates across his arsenal. He throws four pitches in a four-seam fastball, slider, curveball and splitter. The fastball sits 91-93 mph, touching 95 mph at peak. While it’s well below-average velocity for an MLB pitcher of any role these days, the pitch does show above-average ride and cut, giving it useful properties.
Beck’s best pitch is his slider, which sits 82-84 mph with gyro shape and tunnels well off his fastball. The pitch generates whiffs at a rate of 38.4% with a chase rate of 36.9% in 2025. The curveball is a mid-70s downer that Beck shows particularly strong feel for. The splitter, meanwhile, was rarely used, but it’s a hyper-low-spin pitch that averaged around 700 rpm this season. The offering shows strong separation off his fastball, but it didn’t miss any bats in 2025.
Beck has dealt with a rocky road to recovery, but he put together a 2025 season that warrants Rule 5 consideration.
Alex Pham, RHP, Orioles
The Orioles landed Pham in the 19th round of the 2021 draft out of San Francisco. After working as a reliever in his professional debut, the organization tried to develop him as a starter for two years. In 2025, the Orioles used Pham primarily as a reliever after he returned from a forearm sprain in mid August.
While Pham had some bumps in the road over the final month of his season, he ran a 23.6% strikeout rate with a 6.9% walk rate. He ran 3.75 FIP over this period but did give up a fair amount of hard contact. He saw a late-season promotion to Triple-A, where he made a pair of successful appearances.
While Pham’s velocity is just fringe, sitting 92-94 mph on his fastball, he does generate nearly 20 inches of ride on average with heavy cut. Complementing the fastball, Pham mixes four secondaries in a cutter, curveball, slider and changeup. He shows the ability to land all four in the zone, and each boasted above-average whiffs rates. All three breaking ball variations generated whiffs at a rate of 40% or higher.
Pham has minimal Triple-A experience, but he has interesting stuff and has thrown enough strikes to potentially make the jump to the big leagues.
Chris Campos, RHP, Dodgers
Campos was primarily a shortstop, moonlighting as a reliever over his three seasons at St. Mary’s. The Dodgers selected him in the seventh round of the 2022 draft and converted him to full-time pitching duties.
The 5-foot-10 Campos is undersized for a starter, but he has proven to be durable, surpassing 110 innings in each of the last two seasons and never seeing any time on the injured list. After spending a majority of the 2024 season with Double-A Tulsa, he returned in 2025 and spent the entirety of the season in the Texas League. He made 26 appearances (23 starts) totaling 126.2 innings and posted the third-lowest walk rate among qualified Texas League starters.
Campos throws four pitches in a four-seam fastball, cutter, curveball and splitter. The cutter is often marked as a slider, but sitting at 87-89 mph and touching 93 with 10-11 inches of ride and 2-3 inches of gloveside break, it’s clearly a cutter. The pitch is Campos’ most-thrown offering, and for good reason, as it ran a 33% whiff rate and 69% strikeout rate in 2025.
Campos’ fastball looks fairly good on paper. While it sits only 92-94 mph, he generates 18-20 inches of induced vertical break from a five-and-a-half-foot release height. Despite a flat vertical approach angle and good ride from his slot, the fastball did not generate as many whiffs as might be expected. Campos’ curveball is a clear third pitch, sitting 78-80 mph with 12-6 shape and the highest whiff rates in his arsenal. He uses his splitter exclusively against lefthanded hitters, and it has above-average velocity and vertical separation off his fastball.
It’s possible Campos would be more 94-95 mph in one-inning stints, mixing his cutter as his primary pitch with his fastball, curveball and changeup all being offerings hitters would have to respect. Could a team take a flier on Campos and move him directly into the bullpen?
Ryan Webb, LHP, Guardians
Webb fits as a T.J. McFarland-style Rule 5 pick. There’s very little sexiness about his arsenal. He maxes out at 92-94 mph with his four-seamer, which is below-average velocity these days even for a lefty. But his fastball is really his third or fourth pitch on most days. He throws his changeup, cutter, slider, sinker and curve in every outing, keeping hitters guessing. He has plus command but below-average control, meaning he has to nibble.
A team looking for a swingman or long reliever could be enticed by Webb’s upper-level experience. He went 8-7, 4.15 at Triple-A Columbus in 2025 and has more than 250 innings at Double-A and above.
CJ Culpepper, RHP, Twins
Culpepper entered the 2025 season as the Twins’ 11th-ranked prospect, but he struggled through a combination of injuries and poor on-field performance. He missed more than two months with a pinched nerve in his elbow and then additional time with a virus and saw his stuff back up. He threw only 59.1 innings and while his 3.01 ERA was solid, his strikeout rate dropped 5.6% from 2024 and his walk rate rose 4.9%.
The biggest change in his profile was his fastball velocity, as his average velo dropped from 94.2 to 92.2, and his max dropped from 98.3 to 95.5. His strike-throwing remained relatively consistent, but the pitch regressed in stuff models.
Culpepper still leans heavily on his low-to-mid 80s slider, with it showing sweepy shape and producing a 40% whiff rate and 33% chase rate. He struggled to land it in the zone consistently in 2025, which contributed to his increased walk rate. He also features a cutter, but it grades out as fringy, and he will also occasionally mix in a sinker and an inconsistent changeup.
Scouts are mixed on his future role, but if a team believes they can get him back to his 2024 velocity and refine his fastball shape, Culpepper still represents an intriguing target because of his ability to spin a breaking ball.
Jack Choate, LHP, Giants
The Giants drafted Choate out of Division II Assumption in the ninth round in 2022. Over three full minor league seasons, the tall lefthander has consistently performed, exceeding 100 innings in each of the last two seasons and not posting an ERA above 3.80.
Choate stands 6-foot-8 and creates over seven feet of extension on average. This outlier ability to get down the mound coupled with a plus changeup and feel for spin give Choate some interesting traits teams might value despite 20-grade velocity on his fastball that sees him sit 88-89 mph on his four-seamer. Despite the low velo, Choate has an above-average whiff rate against his fastball.
Choate has three pitches that boasted above-average whiff rates or better in 2025, in his four-seam, changeup and slider. Choate’s best pitch is his changeup, which sits upper 70s but has true sink and heavy armside run. He kills lift on the pitch and gets substantial vertical separation off his fastball. The sweeper slider is a third pitch, but it shows intriguing traits with average spin rates in the 2600-2700 rpm range, some drop and 13-15 inches of horizontal break.
Walks have been an issue for Choate, and coupled with his lack of velocity, it could be a reason he goes unselected.
Dylan DeLucia, RHP, Guardians
A 2022 sixth-round pick out of Ole Miss, DeLucia was named the 2022 College World Series Most Outstanding Player after throwing a nine-inning, four-hit shutout against Arkansas to push the Rebels to the CWS. DeLucia had Tommy John surgery after signing with the Guardians and missed all of 2023. Post-surgery, he was limited to 49.1 innings in 2024, but he made a big jump in 2025, making 22 starts racking up 108.1 innings. He reached Double-A by early June and fared well with Akron, making 13 starts and pitching to 3.19 ERA and 1.13 WHIP over 62 innings.
DeLucia didn’t miss many bats this season, but he shows four quality pitches, led by a four-seam fastball sitting 92-95 mph. It gets 17 inches of induced vertical break from a 5-foot-2 release height to create one of the flattest vertical approach angles among starters in the minors at -3.79 degrees.
DeLucia has three secondaries in a low-to-mid-80s sweeper, a mid-80s changeup and a mid-80s splitter. While he hasn’t missed many bats as a starter, a jump to the pen could see his good stuff play up.
Grant Kipp, RHP, Cubs
Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Yale in 2022, Kipp is a spin monster, plain and simple. He doesn’t generate much velocity on his deadzone four-seam fastball, but he has been up to 97 mph and averages around 2600-2700 rpm on the pitch, which is on the higher end of fastball spin rates. Perhaps there’s more in the tank or a better shape that Kipp can take advantage of.
Where he does excel is with his breaking ball quality. Kipp spins three different breaking balls in a low-to-mid-80s sweeper, low-80s curveball and mid-to-high-80s slider. All three pitches average spin rates in the 2800-3000 rpm range with each having different movement profiles and angles from fairly closely clustered release heights.
Kipp had a solid season in Double-A this year, making 26 appearances (23 starts) spanning 108.2 innings. He struck out 23.5% of batters faced but also walked a concerning 12.2%. Kipp is here for the off chance someone falls in love with spin traits.
Ryan Long, RHP, Orioles
Long missed nearly two full seasons with Division III Pomona-Pitzer due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the Orioles picked him in the 17th round of the 2021 draft. Long has had moderate success as a professional, making him a long shot to be picked.
Despite that lack of performance, Long has a few desirable traits. He has a big frame at 6-foot-6, which helps him to generate nearly seven feet of extension on average for a fastball with elite ride. His cutter, sweeper and pair of offspeed pitches—both a traditional changeup and a splitter—give Long a cache of secondaries to move the ball around the zone.
While Long has been a starter up to this point, there could be potential gains to be made as a reliever.
Shane Murphy, LHP, White Sox
Murphy was one of the most effective pitchers in the minors in 2025, as he went 10-5, 1.66 in 135 innings, largely with Double-A Birmingham. He was completely allergic to big innings. He allowed three runs twice in 26 appearances and never allowed more than three runs. He proved hard to hit (.199 opponent average) and equally hard to work for a walk (4.9% walk rate). That all being said, Murphy is going to be a tough sell in the Rule 5 draft because of his relatively pedestrian stuff. He baffled hitters because of his ability to fill the zone with seven pitches—an 89-91 mph four-seam fastball and a sinker, changeup, cutter, curve, slider and sweeper. He handled righthanded hitters with no issues in 2025 and did reach Triple-A, so a team could decide to take a chance on seeing whether his ability to throw a Yu Darvish-sized arsenal will work against MLB hitters even with stuff that is well below average.
Cam Weston, RHP, Orioles
The Orioles’ eighth-round pick out of Michigan in 2022, Weston could be interesting to a team looking to find a multi-inning reliever/swingman who can start if needed. Weston has been a starter throughout his pro career. He went 5-9, 4.59 in 135 innings with Triple-A Norfolk last year with an 11.7% walk rate and a 21.9% strikeout rate. He throws a wide array of pitch shapes, mixing low-90s sinkers, sweepers, cutters, splitters and changeups. Rarely will hitters see two fastballs in a row, as Weston knows he has to keep hitters guessing. For a low-slot righthander, Weston works hard at changing hitters’ eye levels. He’ll throw sinkers above the zone and threaten all quadrants with his varied selection of pitches. Weston’s stuff isn’t overwhelming, but the sheer quantity of fringe-to-average offerings gives him a chance to fit.
Logan Workman, RHP, Rays
This is a second straight year in which Workman has registered as a potential Rule 5 target. After going 10-5, 2.71 for Double-A Montgomery in 2024, he went 9-7, 4.02 in 152 innings with Triple-A Durham this past season. Workman is a reliable strike-thrower (7.2% walk rate) who spots his 92-94 mph fastball and mid-80s slider and changeup. None of the three grade out as plus, but he stays ahead in counts, striking out 24.4% of batters. Workman can be a bit homer-prone, but his durability and consistency stand out, as he worked five or more innings in 23 of his 29 appearances in 2025. He would fit for a team looking for a back-of-the-rotation starter who can also handle multiple-inning relief appearances.
Joel Hurtardo, RHP, Angels
Hurtado didn’t sign a pro contract until he was 21-years-old, so he’s reached Rule 5 eligibility quicker than most international signees. But he has the upper-level MiLB success teams look for in Rule 5 picks. He has plenty of arm strength. He’s a starter who sits 95-96 mph, but he can reach back for 100-plus when he needs it. He throws his slider as much as anything. It’s a hard slider with modest movement, which helps him locate it well. He also shows feel for a hard changeup, which is his chase pitch. Hurtado went 5-6, 2.75 in 19 starts this season, all but one of them at Double-A Rocket City. His 7.3% walk rate is excellent, but teams may be worried by his lack of strikeouts (15.5%). For all his arm strength, Hurtado is better described as a sinker-slider strike-thrower, but that could fit as a versatile starter/multi-inning reliever.
Pitchers With Injuries
It’s common to see teams take chances on talented pitchers expected to miss time in the upcoming season. This allows teams to “stash” a player, often making it easier to hold them on the active roster for a full season and ultimately retain their rights. Many of these players were hurt in 2025 and should return later in 2026, while others will miss the 2026 season entirely.
Brandon Birdsell, RHP, Cubs
Entering 2025, Birdsell looked likely to make his major league debut as a depth starter for the Cubs down the stretch. Instead, he dealt with persistent elbow pain, missing the first two and a half months of the season before returning for four starts with Triple-A Iowa and being shut down for good with an elbow injury. Birdsell had elbow surgery in early September with Dr. Keith Meister, and while the exact details of the surgery are unknown, it sounds more likely to be an internal brace than a full Tommy John surgery.
Birdsell is unlikely to see action at all in 2026. This makes him an easy stash for a team willing to hold him on a 40-man roster spot for the entire season. There’s a high likelihood that Birdsell is fully healthy heading into 2027 spring training, and he could at that time compete for a rotation spot. He would need to stick on the active roster for a total of 90 days to fulfill Rule 5 requirements if he doesn’t pitch in 2026.
Over the last two seasons, Birdsell has 80 Triple-A innings and has pitched to a 4.05 ERA with 87 strikeouts to 26 walks. Over that time, he’s generated ground balls at a rate of 43.8% with a swinging-strike rate of 12.6%. Birdsell’s pitches across the board were down in 2025, as he went from sitting 95 mph on his cut-ride four-seam fastball in 2024 to 93.5 and losing an inch of vertical break. He also throws an upper-80s-to-low-90s cutter, a low-to-mid-80s curveball and a firm upper-80s changeup. All of his pitches have fringe-average stuff, but if he can return to his 2024 velocity and shape on his four-seamer, he could be a viable No. 5 starter or swingman in 2027.
Peter Heubeck, RHP, Dodgers
A third-round high school pick in the 2021 draft, Heubeck is Rule 5-eligible for the first time after spending all of 2025 with Double-A Tulsa. He made 16 starts spanning 66.1 innings before he hit the injured list in late July with rotator cuff inflammation that ended his season.
Prior to the injury, Heubeck was putting together a fairly strong season with Tulsa, where he was striking out 27.7% of batters while holding opposing hitters to a .196 batting average. Heubeck’s 13.2% swinging-strike rate is above average for a starter, and he’s shown the ability to consistently miss bats.
Heubeck leads his four-pitch mix with his four-seam fastball, a pitch that sits 93-94 mph with 18-20 inches of induced vertical break and moderate cut from a 5-foot-8 release height. The lower release on his fastball and high spin efficiency allow Heubeck to create a flat approach angle despite poor extension. His mid-to-high-80s cut-slider is his primary secondary, and it’s a well-commanded pitch that shows average bat-missing capabilities. His two-plane curveball has extreme depth with nearly 20 inches of induced vertical break on average. It’s a tricky pitch to command, but when batters swing at it, they miss at a high rate. Heubeck has poor command with his changeup, and he hardly throws it. However, it didn’t miss a high rate of bats in a limited sample.
Heubeck could potentially up the usage on his breaking balls and air out his fastball in shorter outings out of the pen, making him an intriguing Rule 5 option.
Kevin Stevens, RHP, Yankees
Stevens is a sneaky Rule 5 name to watch. He barely pitched in 2025, throwing just two innings between the Florida Complex League and the Florida State League on a rehab assignment. He was then moved to the full-season injured list with an elbow sprain.
But Stevens has actually already had upper-level MiLB success. He went 4-0, 2.54 with a 10% walk rate and a 35% strikeout rate in 39 innings in the Double-A Somerset bullpen in 2024. Stevens has some funkiness to his 94-95 mph four-seam fastball that has touched 98. and he relies heavily on a mid-80s slider.
Having also missed all of 2023 because of injury, it’s possible Stevens’ medical reports may take him off of some teams’ draft lists. But his combination of strike-throwing and solid stuff could make him a useful bullpen arm.
Alfredo Zarraga, RHP, Rays
Zarraga went 3-4, 2.70 as Double-A Montgomery’s closer in 2024 before he struggled in a brief promotion to Triple-A Durham. He added further experience in the Venezuelan winter league, where he pitched for Aragua, but he missed almost all of 2025 thanks to Tommy John surgery.
Zarraga can attack hitters with a 95-97 mph riding sinker, a hard 85-87 mph slider and a mid-80s changeup. His timetable for return should allow him to spend a couple months longer on the injured list to start 2026, but he could be back on the mound in time to fulfill the required 90 days on the active roster before the season wraps up. He could be a useful sleeper as a reliever coming off an injury.
Thomas Balboni Jr., RHP, Yankees
A teammate of fellow Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler at Northeastern, Balboni was acquired by New York in the July 2024 Brandon Lockridge trade, but he didn’t get into an official game in 2025, missing the entire season due to elbow surgery.
Balboni has a tougher Rule 5 case than fellow injured Yankees pitcher Kevin Stevens, because he hasn’t had the same upper-level success. However, he did strike out 38% of batters faced in 2024, as his low arm slot gives him a different look and makes his 93-94 mph fastball and 79-81 mph slider effective.
Balboni is a very tough at-bat for righthanded hitters, but his below-average control and struggles against lefties will have to improve if he’s picked.
Calvin Ziegler, RHP, Mets
The Mets drafted Ziegler out of high school in the second round in 2021. The native Canadian became the team’s top signed pick from that draft after negotiations with first-rounder Kumar Rocker fell apart.
Injuries have marred Ziegler’s progression as a pro. He made three total appearances in 2023 and 2024 and missed all of 2025 after having Tommy John surgery. In a live bullpen session late in 2025, he was throwing 93-94 mph and topping out at 95. He drew attention early in his pro career for his low-80s curveball with plus downward break and high whiff rates. Ziegler has struggled with well below-average control and has had trouble refining a third pitch. Injury concern will be Ziegler’s biggest hurdle to being picked. He hasn’t pitched in a game since April 2024 as his recovery from Tommy John surgery has been slower than normal.
If healthy and throwing strikes, Ziegler could develop into a two-pitch big league reliever. But teams will have to dive into his medicals.
Anyer Laureano, RHP, Reds
Laureano last threw in a game on Aug. 6, 2024. He spent all of 2025 on the full-season injured list recovering from an elbow injury.
As a reliever who has yet to reach Double-A, there’s plenty of reasons to think he’ll go unpicked. But he’s also a righthander who can touch 100 mph when healthy and sits 95-97 with above-average life. His 85-87 mph slider gives him a pair of weapons.
Medical concerns and fringe-average control work against him, but a team could be intrigued by Laureano’s arm talent.
Tyler Stuart, RHP, Nationals
Stuart is a 6-foot-9 righthander with a starter pedigree and a repertoire centered on a sinker and slider. He missed time early in 2025 with arm soreness and then had Tommy John surgery in August, so he will be sidelined for all of 2026.
Stuart gets more than six and a half feet of extension, helping to accentuate his 93 mph sinker with plus tailing action. His low-80s sweeper is his go-to swing-and-miss pitch, and he also throws a mediocre four-seamer and changeup. Stuart is much tougher on righthanded batters because of his pitch mix, and he probably fits best in a multi-inning relief or swingman role.
The Nationals acquired Stuart from the Mets in the 2024 Jesse Winker trade.
Edgar Portes, RHP, Orioles
Portes barely pitched in 2025 because of an injury, and his seven relief appearances at Double-A Chesapeake are best forgotten (1-0, 8.68 with a 2.36 WHIP). But he was 5-4, 3.34 at High-A Aberdeen in 2024 pre-injury. Portes’ fastball and slider both showed promise before he got hurt. He’s unlikely to get picked because of his lack of upper-level experience, but his arm is intriguing.
Bat-First Positional Players
Positional prospects often are few and far between in the Rule 5 draft, more often than not, it’s the glove-first players who get taken over their superior-hitting peers. These players fall into a Ryan Noda-type category of potential MLB quality bats but limited defensive value.
Kyler Fedko, OF, Twins
Fedko does not fit the normal profile of a Rule 5 pick. He’s a righthanded-hitting outfielder in an era when Rule 5 picks are almost always pitchers or premium defenders. But Fedko could be interesting for a rebuilding team who views his 2025 season as a sustainable breakout.
Fedko hit 28 home runs between Double-A Wichita and Triple-A St. Paul this season to go with 38 steals in 46 tries. While his tools are a bit more modest than his stats may appear, Fedko has above-average contact skills and doesn’t get fooled out of the strike zone. His exit velocities are solid, not spectacular, but he does an excellent job getting to the very most of his power. He pulls the ball in the air consistently, which led to his power surge. Fedko is an above-average runner who makes the most of his opportunities on the bases.
Defensively, he’s stretched in center field as anything more than a fill-in, but he can play both corner outfield spots and even first base to a fringe-average level. He has a below-average arm.
Fedko is a 26-year-old who projects as a role player. That’s not a normal Rule 5 profile, but with upper-level time, he could be an inexpensive addition for a team looking for an outfield bat.
Yohendrick Piñango, OF, Blue Jays
Piñango is one of the best available hitters in the Rule 5 draft. He has an excellent combination of solid upper-level production—.258/.361/.430 with 14 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A—with nearly impeccable analytical data. He hits the ball as hard as almost anyone in the minors—92 mph average EV and a 109 mph 90th EV—and he does it with well-above-average contact rates and solid swing decisions.
Piñango is a left fielder only, and he’s a fringy defender there. That’s a profile that doesn’t get picked all that often, but there are few 23-year-old lefthanded hitters like this in the Rule 5 draft.
Justice Bigbie, OF/1B, Tigers
Outfielders rarely get picked in the Rule 5 draft these days. Of the 57 MLB Rule 5 picks of the 2020s, only three have been outfielders. However, two of those three (Blake Sabol and Akil Baddoo) did stick with their new clubs.
Bigbie had a breakout season as a prospect in 2023, as he hit .343/.405/.537 in a season that stretched from High-A West Michigan to Triple-A Toledo. His prospect status has cooled significantly since then, as evidenced by the fact that he spent almost all of the 2025 season at Double-A Erie after already having 151 games of Triple-A experience.
As such, Bigbie was beating up on less-experienced pitchers this season, but his underlying plate skills remain interesting. He has above-average contact skills, and he hits the ball hard with elite exit velocities. However, he has always struggled to pull the ball in the air, and that problem has gotten worse and worse, limiting his productive power. He’s a fringy defender in left field and a tad worse than that at first base.
As a righthanded hitter with minimal defensive value, it’s a tough profile, but Bigbie is one of the better hitters available in this year’s Rule 5 draft.
BJ Murray, 1B/3B, Cubs
There are very few teams that would even consider Murray, but if a club has a very specific need—a switch-hitting corner infield bat who mashes against lefthanders while looking to survive and draw walks against righthanders—he could be intriguing.
Murray hit .356/.462/.731 against lefties and .230/.359/.378 against righthanders at Double-A Knoxville this past season. Those were the best numbers of Murray’s career against lefties, but he’s always hit for power in those situations. It’s hard to make the case for a platoon/bench bat whose best work will come on the lesser side of the platoon, but a team needing a hitter to mash lefties could take a chance.
T.J. Rumfield, 1B, Yankees
There have been only eight first basemen picked in the MLB Rule 5 draft in the 2000s (nine if you count Chris Shelton, who was listed as a catcher but played first base for the Tigers after being picked). First and third basemen are almost never selected, but if you look at the success rate, maybe they should be picked more often. Shelton, Ryan Noda, Mark Canha, Josh Phelps and Jay Gibbons were all successful picks. Rumfield slashed .285/.378/.447 with 16 home runs and 48 extra-base hits for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2025. Rumfield does not have prototypical home run power for the position, but he is a 6-foot-5 lefthanded-hitting first baseman with above-average contact skills and adequate pullside power.
Blaze Jordan, 1B, Cardinals
Much of what was said about Rumfield can be said about Jordan. There’s a reason first basemen are often left unprotected. There assuredly will be worse first basemen than Jordan who will play in the majors in 2026, but as a Rule 5 pick, Jordan would need to stay up for the entire season on a team’s MLB roster. So to make the roster, Jordan would need to show that he’s at least a significant part of a job share at first base/DH. That’s a possibility, but it’s also far from a certainty, which is part of the reason he was traded from the Red Sox to the Cardinals in July. Jordan is coming off a solid but unspectacular .270/.351/.450 season. He really struggled after the trade. He hit .298/.341/.480 pre-trade in the International League and then only .198/.291/.423 after he was moved. Jordan has better contact skills than many righthanded sluggers, but he also chases and ends up hitting too many pitchers’ pitches because of his aggressiveness and lack of bat control. He will post eye-popping exit velocities at his best, but he’s yet to hit 20 home runs in a season because he doesn’t drive the ball to left field all that often.
Allan Castro, OF, Red Sox
Castro has made a steady ascent through the Red Sox system. He hit his first pothole in 2024 when he struggled at Double-A Portland, but he performed well once again in 2025, showing a solid batting eye with excellent contact skills. He’s a switch-hitting, line-drive hitter who can play all three outfield spots (he’s fringe-average in center), giving him a backup outfielder profile.
Austin Gauthier, 2B, Dodgers
Gauthier has one real skill as a hitter, but it’s an impressive skill. He is a pure contact hitter who grinds out at-bats, forcing pitchers to keep filling the zone with strikes. If they miss their target, his exceptional strike-zone discipline helps him rack up walks. He hit .259 with a .354 slugging percentage at Triple-A Oklahoma City, but thanks to 93 walks, he posted a .404 on-base percentage. A righthanded-hitting utility man, Gauthier played second base almost exclusively in 2025, but he’s played third base, both corner outfield spots and shortstop in the past. He’s average defensively at second and playable at third or the corner outfield spots. He is a low-ceiling prospect, but his on-base skills combined with adequate defense make him a useful candidate for a team needing an OBP boost.
Clark Elliott, OF, Athletics
A supplemental second-round pick out of Michigan in 2022, Elliott has battled injuries as a pro, but he hit .251/.395/422 with an excellent 16.8% walk rate in 2025 between High-A Lansing and Double-A Midland. He is a lefthanded-hitting corner outfielder who can play center field in an emergency. His lack of impact makes him an unlikely pick, but his contact and on-base skills are intriguing.
David McCabe, 1B, Braves
McCabe has always been able to hit. He missed almost all of 2024 because of Tommy John surgery, but he returned to hit .275/.367/.426 between Double-A Columbus and Triple-A Gwinnett. McCabe has played a lot of third base in his MiLB career, but it’s hard to find a scout who sees him as a big league third baseman. Notably, he played only first base after his promotion to Triple-A Gwinnett. McCabe lacks the power normally expected from a first baseman—his career high in home runs is 17—but he is one of the most well-rounded hitters in this year’s Rule 5-eligibles class. He actually hits the ball quite hard, but he doesn’t pull the ball in the air. He has average bat-to-ball skills and a very solid understanding of the strike zone.
Felix Reyes, 1B/OF, Phillies
Reyes hit .335/.365/.572 with 15 home runs in 95 games at Double-A Reading, and his production wasn’t an artifact of playing in a hitter-friendly park, as he also hit .354/.368/.556 on the road. But there’s one fatal flaw that works against him getting picked: Reyes is exceptionally aggressive at the plate. It didn’t come back to bite him in Double-A because of his hand-eye coordination, but there is a legitimate worry about how he would fare against big league pitchers. Reyes has plus-plus raw power, so maybe a team could take a chance. He’s played all four corner spots—first and third base and left and right field—but he doesn’t have much defensive value.
Glove-First Positional Players
We’ve seen a number of these defensive-centril players selected in recent seasons, with the Nationals’ Nasim Nunez being a prime example. Players like this are chosen because a team is hurting for a late-inning defensive replacement. All of these players can scratch that itch.
Andrew Pintar, OF, Marlins
Pintar fits the Rule 5 archetype as a speedy center fielder with defensive value and a clear edge against lefthanded pitching. He hit .269/.338/.384 with four homers and 24 steals for Triple-A Jacksonville in 2025, and his platoon gap was stark—a .679 OPS against righties and .924 against lefties. His strikeout rates followed the same pattern, with far fewer whiffs against lefthanders.
The bat remains the variable. Contact issues and an inability to lift the ball have kept his above-average raw power from showing consistently in games. He now presents an interesting decision on whether his speed, defense and production against lefties merit a major league roster spot.
Noah Miller, SS, Dodgers
Miller is a defensive whiz who can provide plus-or-better shortstop defense. He’s so good at short, in fact, that he’s barely ever played anywhere else. With his hands and plus arm, he should be able to easily handle a utility infielder role for a club in need of defensive help.
That said, any team picking Miller should not expect anything offensively from him. He is a true bottom-of-the-order bat who hit .260/.303/.362 between Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City. While he’s a switch hitter who makes plenty of contact, there’s very little impact in his bat, and he doesn’t run well.
Cameron Cauley, SS/2B/CF, Rangers
Cauley’s credentials as a potential up-the-middle backup are unimpeachable. That could make him a worthwhile pick for a rebuilding team who lacks solid defenders on the bench.
Cauley started 25 or more games at second base, shortstop and center field in 2025 for Double-A Frisco. He’s a plus runner who has stolen 25-plus bases in four straight seasons, and he’s a plus defender at multiple spots. Swing-and-miss issues have slowed his development, but he did make better swing decisions in 2025. He hit .253/.325/.448 for Frisco.
Gage Workman, INF/OF, Tigers
It may seem odd to see Workman listed here, as he was a 2024 MLB Rule 5 pick who was eventually offered back to the Tigers. But that’s actually why he may be worth a pick. A player who is outrighted twice has the option to become a free agent. So, if a team likes Workman, they could pick him, and even if he doesn’t manage to stick, he could re-sign with his new team as a free agent and then be sent to the minors. It’s a rather odd loophole, but it does exist. As he showed in a very brief 12-game MLB stint in 2025, Workman is unlikely to hit for average in the majors, but he does have power and can play everywhere. After returning to Triple-A, Workman played six positions (all three outfield spots plus shortstop, second base and third base). A team looking for a 26th man who can provide defensive value could do worse.
Tanner Schobel, INF, Twins
After a standout sophomore season at Virginia Tech, Schobel went to the Twins with a 2022 supplemental second-round pick. He was steadily climbing the minor league ladder until he hit Double-A. He struggled in the second half of 2023 and was even worse in 2024. But he showed he’d mastered the Texas League in 2025 (.292/.372/.465) before hitting .220/.331/.341 in a 30-game stint in Triple-A. Schobel is a utility infielder who can play shortstop in a pinch. He’s solid at second and third base, making him a potentially low-cost utility infielder pick.
Victor Labrada, OF, Mariners
A Cuban native who signed with the Mariners in 2021, Labrada is a lefthanded line-drive hitter who fits as a top/bottom-of-the-order table-setter. He rarely hits the ball hard, but he does make plenty of contact and draws his share of walks. He’s a plus runner who stole 44 bases in 55 tries in 2025. Labrada hit .291/.403/.405 between Double-A Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma. He used to play center field regularly but has settled into left field in recent years. That makes his Rule 5 case much tougher, as he doesn’t have as much defensive versatility as teams tend to like for a potential back-up outfielder.
Jud Fabian, OF, Orioles
Fabian was a top draft prospect coming out of Florida, but the concerns about his hit tool have proven quite true. He’s a .217 career MiLB hitter, but he does draw walks and hit for power. His .186/.326/.349 slash line at Triple-A Norfolk in 2025 probably disqualifies him as a Rule 5 candidate, but he is a true center fielder with plus defense in the outfield to go with power.
Backup Backstops
Liam Hicks showed last year that it is possible for a team to pick a catcher in the Rule 5 draft who sticks. It’s a tough assignment, as most teams don’t carry three catchers full-time, so a Rule 5 pick has to be able to handle at least a reasonable job-share to stick.
Tatem Levins, C, Rays
The Rays protected Dominic Keegan by adding him to the 40-man roster but left Levins available. Levins was the main catcher for Double-A Montgomery in 2025, where he showed some skills similar to what Liam Hicks displayed before the Marlins picked him in last year’s Rule 5 draft.
Like Hicks, Levins has a very solid understanding of the strike zone. He walked 77 times, which explains his .404 on-base percentage despite a .244 batting average. Levins does not chase pitches out of the zone, although, like many MiLB catchers, he’s vulnerable to being beaten by quality stuff in the zone. Hicks had much better contact skills than Levins, but Levins has much more thump in his bat. Levins has well-above average exit velocities, but because he struggles to pull the ball in the air, it’s not as apparent in his power numbers.
Defensively, Levins has plenty of experience handling velocity, but he will box balls at times. He allowed an above-average number of wild pitches and passed balls in the Southern League. He posts average pop times and threw out 31% of basestealers in 2025.
Kevin Parada, C, Mets
Parada was considered one of the more polished college hitters in the 2022 MLB Draft, but pro ball has proven much tougher than expected. He hit .245/.319/.407 in 2025, in what was a second season largely spent at Double-A Binghamton. Parada’s well-below-average arm doesn’t really fit as a catcher. A team that loved him in the draft could perhaps take a chance on unlocking more hitting ability and power, but he’s never hit 15 home runs in a MiLB season, and he’s a .237/.321/.399 career MiLB hitter, so that may be a tough sell.
Luca Tresh, C, Royals
Tresh was viewed as a potentially high pick going into the 2021 college season. Worries about his hit tool saw him slide, but he’s been solid for the Royals since being a 17th-round pick in 2021. He hit .259/.321/.473 as a part-time catcher in Omaha in 2025 (Carter Jensen limited Tresh’s playing time). Tresh has fringe-average arm strength and pop times, but he’s considered a solid handler of pitchers. Blocking has been an issue at times, and he ranked among the worst in Triple-A in passed balls plus wild pitches per inning pitched. As a hitter, he isn’t exceptional in any metric other than his ability to maximize his power, but he makes an average amount of contact with average exit velocities, something that plays up in games because of his ability to get to his pullside power.
Kenny Piper, C, Rays
Watching Piper throw is a pleasure. He blended plus-plus arm strength with solid exchanges to rank as the hardest-throwing catcher in Triple-A in 2025 with the best pop times. He threw out 33% of basestealers and is an all-around solid defender at catcher. So why is Piper Rule 5 eligible? He hit .188/.297/.351 in 2025, and he’s a .190/.280/.380 hitter in 78 Triple-A games across two seasons. Piper is a hard sell as a primary backup catcher, because teams who want a defense-only backup catcher usually find a veteran to fill that role. Piper’s defense is excellent if a team is willing to pick a backstop who won’t contribute offensively.
