WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Astros broke an eight-year pattern in December when they selected right-hander Roddery Muñoz in the Rule 5 Draft, taking on one of baseball’s most restrictive roster gambles.
Rule 5 selections come with a major condition: the player must stay on the 26-man roster all season or be offered back to his original club. For a contender with little roster flexibility, that risk has kept Houston out of the Rule 5 market since 2017, when Anthony Gose lasted just one Grapefruit League appearance before being returned to Texas.
This time, the Astros believe the risk is worth it.
Muñoz, 25, must make the Opening Day roster or be sent back, but unlike many Rule 5 picks, he arrives with real major league experience and a power arm that caught Houston’s attention.
“For me, it’s an opportunity to stay in the big leagues and show what I can do,” Muñoz said through an interpreter Tuesday.
A Rare Rule 5 Pick with MLB Experience
Muñoz isn’t an unknown project. He logged 93⅔ major league innings, including 17 starts for the Miami Marlins in 2024, before transitioning to relief and making nine appearances with the St. Louis Cardinals last season.
The surface numbers were rough: 30 home runs allowed, 51 walks, and a 6.73 ERA. But the Astros see upside in the raw stuff.
Muñoz features a mid-90s four-seam fastball paired with a hard slider and cutter. Both breaking pitches generated swing-and-miss rates above 30% during his time in Miami and climbed above 40% in a small relief sample with St. Louis.
“It’s two power breakers, really hard, mid-90s four-seam,” Astros senior director of player personnel Matt Hogan said after the Rule 5 Draft. “I don’t want to comp him to Bryan Abreu, but it’s a similar type of breaking stuff. Last year was his first year as a reliever full-time and we think hopefully this year with us he’ll be able to take another step and be a good contributor.”
A Tight Bullpen Picture
Muñoz enters camp battling for space on a crowded pitching staff.
Houston returns five relievers who made at least 44 appearances last season—Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu, Bryan King, Steven Okert, and Bennett Sousa—and added veteran Enyel De Los Santos on a guaranteed contract. Plans to open with a six-man rotation could further squeeze bullpen spots.
Several relievers, including Hader, Abreu, Okert, De Los Santos, and free-agent addition Nate Pearson, are out of minor league options, increasing the pressure on Muñoz to stand out this spring.
Early health questions could create opportunity. Hader has resumed playing catch but has not thrown off a mound after dealing with biceps inflammation, while De Los Santos is currently not throwing due to a right knee strain.
Houston also leaned heavily on left-handed relief last season, with Hader, King, Okert, and Sousa all throwing from the left side. Abreu stood as the only established right-handed leverage arm, and the Astros logged fewer right-handed relief innings than any team in baseball.
That imbalance is one reason Houston targeted Muñoz. Hogan revealed the club attempted to acquire him during the 2025 season but “it didn’t work out.” They returned to him in the Rule 5 Draft.
Fixing the Flaws
Muñoz’s challenges at the major league level are clear. He has walked 11.9% of batters faced, allowed a 45.5% hard-hit rate, and struggled to keep the ball in the park.
Interestingly, those issues didn’t carry over to Triple-A, where he surrendered just four home runs in 57⅔ innings for St. Louis’s top affiliate last year.
The Astros have already identified an early focus point.
“The first thing they told me was to stay more in the zone,” Muñoz said. “Because I have good stuff.”
Manager Joe Espada echoed the organization’s confidence.
“We like Muñoz, we like him a lot,” Espada said Tuesday. “We have some ideas about some things where he can improve on and he’s been very open-minded about it, but we’re really excited about this kid.”
Whether that optimism translates into a roster spot will be one of the key storylines of spring training. For the first time in nearly a decade, the Astros are betting a Rule 5 pick can stick.
The Astros open Grapefruit League play Saturday at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. CT. Broadcast details and game times are available on our Houston Astros 2026 Spring Training Schedule page.
Photo: Minda Haas Kuhlmann, via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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