The Astros selected Roddery Muñoz from Cincinnati during the recent Rule 5 Draft.
Generally, Rule 5 offers low risk with potential upside, with occasional diamonds like Johan Santana who can be picked up from the scrap bin.
So who is Roddery Muñoz?
Well, the 25-year-old fits the standard Rule 5 mold. He has not had success at the major league level in his limited exposure, but he flashes glimpses of a dazzling arsenal, but lacks consistency and control to take advantage of it.
“Muñoz is one of those guys whose poor fastball movement and lack of command make his heater vulnerable even though he’ll touch 99 mph. In 2025, he became more of a cutter/slider guy and threw his fastball much less often. Some of Roddery’s sliders look like Brad Lidge’s best ones; they’re 90 mph and drop straight off the table with break that looks more like a curveball. He has maybe 20-grade control and it wouldn’t be surprising if he struggled to throw strikes so badly next spring that he can’t stick on the Astros’ roster, but if their coaching staff can dial him in enough, they might have a second Bryan Abreu on their hands. — EL”
[Credit Fangraphs – Scouting the 2025 Rule 5 Draft | FanGraphs Baseball]
Throughout most of his career, Roddery was used as an ineffective starter. Possessing an elite strikeout rate that kept him striking out 10+ per 9 in the minors, but an ERA of 6+ during that time.
In 2025, the Cardinals moved him to the bullpen, where he pitched to the tune of a 3.28 ERA across 57.2 IP with an 11.9 K/9, earning him a nod to the Cardinals bullpen. Unfortunately, his 11 major league innings were plagued by a walk rate of 7.4 per 9 and giving up 3.3 long balls per 9.
With just 11 innings last year and 82.2 IP in 2024, there’s a limited sample size to draw judgments from. Still, an initial review of his arsenal shows elite velocity, the use of 5 pitches, and a need for a catcher who can prevent wild pitches.
As you look deeper at the individual pitches, you find three versions of the fastball, a change-up, and a slider. From an initial glance, the cutter and slider possess elite whiff rates, and I imagine he may lean further into their usage, potentially focusing on gaining some semblance of control on a less diversified arsenal.
As you look at Roddery, he makes sense as the Astros Rule 5 pick and contender for our roster. It will be intriguing to see if Miller/Katz can harness his electric stuff to make him into a bullpen asset.
A low-risk, solid-reward candidate – while I’m not banking too much on his performance, I could imagine us praising the move as a game-changer for us if they can refine his control.
What are your thoughts on the Astros Rule 5 pick? Do you think he can harness his electric stuff? Does he make the opening day roster?
Costs us $50K to return him after ST if he doesn’t make the team, right? Chances are good that’s what’ll happen, but you never know. I suppose it also “costs” an off-season 40-man roster spot, but since we didn’t lose anyone to Rule 5 ourselves and there are still a couple easily-releasable players on the 40-man, temporarily occupying that roster spot doesn’t seem like a big ceal.
Still trying to figure out how this site works. This is Maris61. The site keeps assigning me a weird name (“butteryinstant…”), but I couldn’t see how to submit under my usual screen name. Insructions?
It is strange, Butteryinstant.😂 unfortunately I don’t know have any advice. I’m on mobile and get to type in my name although it doesn’t remember anything even though I’ve create a WordPress account and told it to save all my info.
For test purposes…
I’m hoping to do a deep dive on this soon, but I feel like the Astros pitching department has either improved command or found ways to use guys to minimize command concerns very well.
Anecdotally, Neris and Stanek come to mind.