We are still a month away from the Rule 5 Draft. It will take place on the last day of the Winter Meetings, which will be December 10th this year. But teams have to make their decisions on which minor league players they will protect from the Rule 5 Draft before then. Teams will have until 4pm ET on November 18th to add eligible players to the 40-man roster to keep them protected from being selected by another team in the draft. Earlier this week I covered the catchers and infielders, as well as the outfielders. Today we’re going to take a look at the pitchers to wrap up the series with a bit more than a week before the deadline.

Who Is Eligible

Any player who signed a professional contract in the 2021 season or earlier. Any player who signed a professional contract in 2022 who was 19-years-old or older at the time they signed. Players who meet that criteria and are not on the 40-man roster by November 18th at 4pm ET will be eligible to be taken by another team. If that happens the selected player must remain on the big league roster for the 2026 season or be offered back to their original club.

The Most Likely Additions

Cincinnati already made one addition. The team added Jose Franco this past week and they had to make the decision on him before everyone else we’re going to talk about here today because he was going to be a minor league free agent if they did not add him to the 40-man roster before Friday.

There doesn’t feel like there is a “lock” among the group of pitchers, but there are a few guys that you could foresee being talked about in other front offices if they happened to be available.

Johnathan Harmon returned to the mound late in 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid-2024. He made three “rehab” starts with the Arizona Complex League Reds before joining High-A Dayton Dragons the first week of August. He would make five starts before the season came to an end and he found success in his return as he allowed four earned runs in his 22.2 innings (1.59 ERA) with one home run allowed, seven walks, and 19 strikeouts. Following the season he was sent out to the Arizona Fall League where he’s been inconsistent in his 13.2 innings. On the good side he’s struck out 16 batters and hasn’t allowed a home run. On the other side he’s given up 14 hits, walked 10 batters, and has a 5.27 ERA.

From a scouting perspective we have limited pitch tracking data from this season, but there was one game from the complex league and now five games from the Arizona Fall League. He’s throwing his fastball 93-95 and has topped out at 96. Prior to his injury in the summer of 2024 he was topping out at 97 MPH. He throws both a 4-seamer and a sinker and he mixes in a curveball, slider, and change up.

Outside of the Arizona Fall League, Harmon doesn’t have any experience in the upper minor leagues. But all of his secondary pitches are solid, he throws strikes, and as a starter he’s got velocity on his fastball. A team could look at his profile and see a guy who may be able to have his stuff play up in the bullpen with shorter outings.

Trevor Kuncl had never pitched a game in affiliated baseball before 2025. He signed with the Reds last October and then spent the entire 2025 season as Double-A Chattanooga’s closer. Having only previously pitched in independent leagues and briefly in the Mexican Winter League, Kuncl looked like a legit prospect during 2025 as he threw 50.0 innings with a 2.34 ERA while recording 20 saves and giving up just 37 hits while striking out 51 batters with 17 walks and just three home runs allowed. He’s currently in the Arizona Fall League where he’s struck out 15 of the 36 hitters he’s faced, but has also walked six of them in his 7.2 innings.

He’s going to be 27-years-old next season and that certainly will be held against him a bit. But he’s also going to be a 27-year-old who throws in the upper 90’s with a good breaking ball and strong performance in Double-A and flashes of it in higher level environments like the Mexican Winter League and the Arizona Fall League.

The Rest Of The Group

Since I started covering minor league baseball I have seen a lot of pitchers selected that didn’t seem like they should have ever been taken. The Reds themselves are probably responsible for the wildest pick in the history of the draft when they selected Sergio Valenzuela in 2007. He was coming off of a season where he had an ERA of 7.00 in 72.0 innings in A-ball while giving up 102 hits, walking 37, and striking out just 38 batters. His stuff was solid, but absolutely nothing stood out in the scouting reports. After not making the Reds in spring training he went back to the Braves farm system but never pitched another inning of affiliated baseball. He wound up back in Mexico and pitched for more than a decade in the Mexican League and the Mexican Winter League.

I point that out because you just never know what someone else can see in a player and teams are far more likely to bet on a players tools and potential in a pitcher than in a position player. It’s easier to hide a pitcher on a roster and now that most teams are carrying eight relievers it’s even easier. All it takes is one club that thinks there’s something that they can fix, change, develop, or alter to turn someone who maybe was overlooked or utilized improperly to select a guy. And sometimes that turns out to be correct, too.

Velocity isn’t everything, and in today’s game it seems like there are guys throwing harder than ever (they are). Still, velocity plays if you can throw it over the plate and the numbers back that up regardless of what some guy on sports radio wants to tell you.

Hunter Parks topped out at 99 MPH this season and he throws 95-97. That isn’t quite as rare as it once was, but that’s still plus velocity in today’s game. He was very good in Double-A and that earned him a midseason promotion. Triple-A did not go nearly as well as he posted a 9.72 ERA in 25.0 innings with Louisville where he gave up 37 hits, walked 22 batters, and struck out just 17. He then had a brief stint in the Arizona Fall League, making two appearances and walking four batters with three strikeouts in 1.2 innings before being removed from the roster.

Anyer Laureano (pictured above) missed all of 2025 after having elbow surgery. In 2024 with Single-A Daytona he hit 100 MPH and sat in the upper 90’s with his fastball and showed a solid slider. His lack of even High-A experience is a big factor here as the jump to the big leagues from Single-A is huge. But his time in Daytona saw him show big velocity and he struck out 81 batters with a 3.00 ERA in 54.0 innings. He also walked 37 batters and hit four others. Between the injury and his struggles to throw strikes it seems like there’s almost no way he could stick on a 26-man roster all year, but a team could try and buy a lot of time as he comes off of surgery and rally extend his “rehab” to see if they can fix things in non-game environments that would allow them to keep him off the big league roster long enough to see what they can do.

It seems unlikely that any of these guys will be taken, but if it’s going to happen it’s likely going to be the guys throwing 99-100 MPH. As for the group as a whole, there may not be a single player that gets protected among everyone listed in this article today. Even the best shots seem to be on the lower-odds of things.