LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Rule 5 draft, the unofficial closing ceremonies of the winter meetings, offers up the chance for teams to grab cheap lottery tickets in search of fortune.
Just the kind of thing the Rangers are looking for at the moment.
With multiple needs in the bullpen and a desperate need for catching, the Rangers intend to be “active” in Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft, general manager Ross Fenstermaker allowed.
For $100,000, teams with open space on their 40-man roster may select players who qualify for Rule 5 eligibility and have been left off their own team’s 40-man roster. The catch: Teams must keep the player on their 26-man roster for the full season before having the ability to then option them to the minors. It is always a challenge to manage, but it can produce some very big dividends.
Rangers
The Rangers currently have only 34 players on the 40, giving them plenty of room to operate and leaving open the possibility they could select more than one player.
The Rangers have the 14th draft priority, based on final 2025 record, but five teams ahead of them have full rosters, giving them the ninth pick.
Here’s a look at some potential targets:
RHP R.J. Petit, Detroit: Petit ranks as the No. 2 prospect available for the draft, according to Baseball America. The 26-year-old has a 95-97 mph fastball and had an impressive strikeout-to-walk rate of better than 3-to-1. He split last year between Double-A Erie and Triple-A Toledo, compiling a 2.44 ERA in 66 1/3 innings as a reliever. He’d have a shot to pitch his way into a leverage role in a bullpen missing multiple pieces from 2025. To get to him, the Rangers may have to trade up in the draft order.
C Matt Wood, Milwaukee: The Rangers have big catching needs and there are a number of potentially interesting guys out there. It’s more challenging to keep a catcher on the roster all year than any other spot because it would likely require carrying three catchers. That said, Miami made it work with Liam Hicks last year, who was plucked out of the Rangers organization.
Wood, 24, posted a .753 OPS between Class A-AA last year. Wood had strong underlying metrics, according to Baseball America. Woo chased only 17% of the team and had “good hard-hit and pullside launch angle.” Wood is considered the top available position player in the draft.
RHP Blake Burkhalter, Atlanta: The Rangers like guys who have put a little distance between themselves and Tommy John surgery. Typically, they like to bet on guys in their second year back for big jumps. Burkhalter could be an exception. He had Tommy John in 2023, returned in 2024 and then shuttled between the rotation and the bullpen at Double-A and Triple-A. Atlanta moved him to a relief role in the second half of the season and he seemed to thrive, posting a 1.65 ERA in 16 1/3 innings before seeming to tire in the final two outings of the season. But he ended up pitching a career-high 103 innings. Shortening him to a guy who could pitch 70-80 innings out of the bullpen in one- or two-inning stints may serve him best.
RHP Matt Pushard, Miami: Rangers manager Skip Schumaker, who managed the Marlins for two years in 2023-24, may have some background with Pushard, who was in the system then. Pushard, 27, is a bit older than most prospects, but he finished the year strong at Triple-A Jacksonville with a 2.33 ERA in his final 15 appearances. He also held right-handed hitters to a .169 batting average and .539 OPS. The Rangers got lots of mileage out of Shawn Armstrong’s ability to dominate right-handed hitters last year. Pushard, with a sweepy slider and curve ball and a 3-to-1 career strikeout-to-walk rate, could be an Armstrong starter kit.
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