Tigers lose top-30 pitching prospect to Rockies in MLB portion of Rule 5 Draft

The Rule 5 Draft kicked off with very little fanfare on Wednesday, the last day of Winter Meetings in Orlando. Any of MLB's 30 teams without a full 40-man roster had the opportunity to select Rule 5-eligible minor leaguers — players signed at 18 or younger who weren't on their teams after five years, and players signed 19 or older after five.

The Tigers protected five players from the draft at the Nov. 18 deadline: Prospect Nos. 5, 6, 19 Thayron Liranzo, Hao-Yu Lee, and Jake Miller from their top 30, and unranked players Trei Cruz and Eduardo Valencia. They declined to protect two top prospects, No. 21 Izaac Pacheco and No. 30 RJ Petit.

Selected players are immediately added to a team's 40-man roster and have to be placed on outright waivers to be removed, so teams have to be almost certain that they'll immediately use the players they take in the draft. Pitchers are more frequently taken than position players, and a vast majority of teams decline to take anyone at all.

The Tigers had the 19th pick, but what was more interesting was who Detroit was going to lose.

Sure enough, Petit was taken by the Rockies with the first overall pick. The Tigers declined to select a player in the first round, but they did take someone back from the Rockies in the minor league round, selecting High-A pitcher Luke Taggart.

Tigers lose No. 30 prospect RJ Petit to the Rockies in the first round of the Rule 5 Draft

Petit — a 14th-round pick for the Tigers in 2021 — had an excellent 2025 season, making him an easy target for Colorado (draft order is determined by teams' winning percentages). He pitched 43 1/3 Double-A innings, mostly in relief, good for a 2.28 ERA and two saves in three opportunities, before being promoted to Triple-A, where he pitched 23 to a 2.74 ERA.

The Tigers probably could've used a guy like Petit for depth in 2026, but they had the opportunity to protect him from the draft and declined. They could still get him back later in the season; if a Rule 5 player is removed from the 40-man and clears waivers, he returns to his original team. Gage Workman was taken by the Cubs last year, but ended up back with the Tigers by May of 2025.

Losing Petit is certainly a blow to the Tigers' organizational depth, and we can only wish him luck pitching at Coors Field.