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

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