Atlanta Braves Add Right-Handed Pitcher to 40-Man Roster

With the Rule 5 draft looming, the Braves added an arm to their 40-man to protect him

The Braves add a right-hander to the 40-man / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Braves announced on Monday that they have added right-handed relief pitcher Rolddy Muñoz to their MLB roster. 

The #Braves today selected RHP Rolddy Muñoz to the major league roster.

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) November 18, 2024

This move protects Muñoz from next month’s Rule 5 Draft. The deadline to protect players from Rule 5 eligibility is Tuesday evening. The Braves 40-man roster is now up to 39 players. 

The Rule 5 Draft allows clubs without a full 40-man roster to select certain non-40-man roster players from other clubs. Those certain non-40-man roster players must be in a team’s system for a certain amount of time without being added to the 40-man roster. 

No every team participates in the draft.

For players who were signed at 18 years old or younger, they become eligible after five seasons. Players who signed at age 19 or older need to be protected within four seasons.

Any player taken in the Rule 5 Draft must be added to the 26-man active roster for the entirety of the following season. 

While Muñoz is not on MLB.com’s list of Braves top prospects, there are other outlets that are bigger on him. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Rolddy Munoz 18th among Atlanta prospects last summer. Their ranking is out of 36 as opposed to MLB.com’s 30. 

FanGraphs likes him for his strikeout rate, which was up to 33% against Double-A hitters. They’re also high on his slider, which sits in the 85- to 89-mph range. 

He and his brother, Roddery, were signed by the Atlanta Braves as international amateur free agents on the same day, June 11, 2018. While he made his professional debut in 2019, he didn’t become a regular member of a Braves minor league affiliate until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the 2020 MiLB season. 

In 31 appearances in Double-A in 2024, Muñoz had a 3.98 ERA across 40 2/3 innings pitched. Now that he's on the 40-man roster, it can be expected that he will make it to at least Triple-A some time next season.