May 30: Raley underwent Tommy John surgery Wednesday and had an internal brace installed in his elbow as well, the team announced.
May 21: Mets reliever Brooks Raley will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, reports Tim Healey of Newsday. That’ll end his 2024 season and likely cost him at least the first half of the ’25 campaign.
It could also mark the end of Raley’s time in Queens. The 35-year-old southpaw (36 in June) is set to hit free agency next offseason. Raley is playing this season on a $6.5MM salary after the Mets exercised a club option at the start of last winter. That was an easy decision considering how well Raley pitched between 2022-23.
In 126 appearances over that stretch, he turned in a 2.74 earned run average behind a 26.8% strikeout rate. The Mets received some trade calls at last summer’s deadline (and quite likely again over the winter) but elected to hold onto him as their top left-handed setup option.
That’ll unfortunately go down as a mostly lost investment. Raley had an excellent start to the season, working seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts over eight appearances. He landed on the injured list on April 21 with what ultimately proved to a season-ending injury. While the Mets initially diagnosed the issue as inflammation and projected a short-term absence, later testing revealed ligament damage.
Without Raley, the Mets are light on left-handed relievers. Jake Diekman is their clear top option. The 37-year-old has made 20 appearances and posted his typical blend of huge strikeout and walk tallies. Diekman has punched out 23 of his 70 opponents (nearly 33%) while issuing 14 walks (20%). He owns a 3.86 ERA across 16 1/3 innings. The veteran is an effective reliever overall, but he’s probably miscast as a team’s best left-hander.
Josh Walker has been on and off the active roster throughout the season. He’s currently in a middle relief role. Danny Young is on optional assignment to Triple-A Syracuse. Tyler Jay saw a bit of MLB time early in the season and remains in the organization after being outrighted from the 40-man roster a month ago. The Mets could welcome swingman David Peterson back from the 60-day injured list as soon as next week. Whether he’ll work from the bullpen or grab a rotation spot — likely in place of the struggling Adrian Houser — is still to be determined.
Raley has spent the last month on the 15-day IL. The Mets can move him to the 60-day at any time that they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster (though they already have two vacancies in that regard). His camp will presumably look for a two-year deal when he hits the open market, likely with a low base salary in the first season.
Bam!!
Tough go for Raley. He didn’t pitch scared, and I liked that about him.
Edwin Diaz, on the other hand, is getting beat on his slider time after time, and feigns from throwing his 97.8 mph fastball. Guess it seems too slow to him.
He pitches scared every appearance. Like the chicken shallot he was in 2019.
How was he an onion?
My dad used to say “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken (sh)!
I can’t believe I had to explain that one.
“I can’t believe I had to explain to you why I used shallots as a plug in word for a curse in an expression my dad used to use”
Yeah I can’t believe that either. By now I should know all of your dad’s hillbilly sayings with all the appropriate substituted curses.
“Scared every appearance”…Diaz is the classic example of why you don’t go past 2(maybe 3 in exceptional cases)years with any reliever not named Mariano Riviera. 90% of relievers simply have too much variance year to year to wed yourself to them long term. Diaz is usually good but he’s already missed a year and is already threatening to make 40%(2 of 5 years) of his contract virtually useless). I know it’s easy to say now, but I said it at the time of signing too, about both him and Houston’s Josh Hader.
Oh damn, you knew way back then?.! Hader too!???! You da man!
“Oh damn, you knew”….For me, it’s not rocket science; it’s just a general rule that should always be followed. I can’t take credit for it, because many baseball GMs follow a similar rule. I said the same thing 7+ years ago when the Cardinals signed Brett Cecil to a DISASTROUS 4 year deal and people called me an idiot. I say the same thing everytime(and sometimes I’m wrong, but not very often), so it’s not exactly genius, just common sense.
This is nuts dude. You knew that signing all three of these relievers would be bad contacts?! Holy crap you’re like a savant or something. Do you work for MLB or in a teams scouting department or what?
“This is nuts dude. You knew that signing”….You’re way overthinking my point. I can’t read the future(anymore than you can) but I do know that signing relievers long term is risky(and often very costly). It’s the same reason you wouldn’t go walking the downtown city streets of a major city alone at 2 a.m. You don’t know what’s going to happen(by reading the future), but you do “know” it could lead to bad outcomes and probably not worth the risk. I watched a lot of MLB from the 70’s-90’s and this theory was often promoted by old school GMs like Dallas Green, Whitey Herzog, Pat Gillick and Sandy Alderson. I even heard an Andrew Friedman(Dodgers) interview last year where he indirectly said pretty much the same thing. It’s their theory, but I’ve long agreed with it. You don’t have to be prescient(or even understand baseball really)to understand the theories of risk management or risk vs reward analysis.
No man I’m not overthinking, you just haven’t caught on to my sarcasm. Everybody knows relievers have high variability, not just you and Whitey Herzog. Literally everyone knows that relievers can be inconsistent year to year even month to month or between appearances.
I think you’re maybe underthinking how much adding years can bring down AAV during negotiations and how the timing of the the negotiations can really add leverage in either direction.
“Everybody knows relievers have high variability”…I thought most baseball fans knew this too, but everytime I say it people disagree and act like they’ve never heard of this before. And also, “sarcasm” doesn’t really translate in writing and you sounded serious to me and that’s why I responded. No matter the AAV, devoting that much payroll($90M+) to a closer is WAY more risk than it’s worth. Even the Yankees have moved away from this model in recent years, but apparently not “everyone” knows this, because Diaz and Hader were both recently signed to very risky deals that haven’t exactly paid off.
“sarcasm doesn’t really translate to writing”
Yeah good point, nobody has ever been able to successfully implement sarcasm via print before. I totally forgot that, despite reading it once before on youdontknowwhatthehellsarcasmis.com/introtosarcasm
So easy to throw shade from your armchair.
DIaz obviously needs you as his buddy/mentor/courage prodder/pitching guru.
That Jeremy Hefner dude is getting everybody hurt or recovering from hurt, or to be hurt.
The Mets need you, fer sher.
Bye.
Crap
Thank you DODB. I was trying not to cuss. And when you pitch scared like Edwin Diaz has been recently, the result has been crap. Much like 2019.
Don’t you mean Edlose Diaz?
Your commenter key is stuck on Repeat.
Tommy cashes in on another trademark hit.
At least he didn’t have to pay some dude to play “Narco” on a trumpet every time he came out of the bullpen at home games
Mets have so much retooling to do from the pen to the rotation to the underwhelming offense. Hoping to see some big trades at the deadline to maybe become competitive in the next two or three years.
This bullpen has been exceptional, Diaz notwithstanding.
Even the starters have generally been over performing expectations.
Not a single offensive player is meeting expectations outside of nimmo and maybe the 4th of platoon of DJ and Tyrone Taylor.
What do the Mets have to trade who has enough value to bring back difference-makers?
Anyone who’s gonna be a free agent after this season
Sucks. Fantastic reliever
****.
sounds like he’s heading to the Dodgers
At this point in the season it might actually be easier to list the pitchers that are not undergoing Tommy John surgery. Granted, I root against both New York teams daily, but I wouldn’t wish these types of numerous and daily arm injuries on my worst enemy.
That’s to bad for Raley, he really figured it out in the last few years. Especially considering he was out of MLB for what 5-6 seasons.
Yep, at least he’s getting paid on this contract. I’d imagine 184 appearances in the last three years have something to do with wear and tear.
This leaves Anthony Rizzo as the last man standing from the legendary 2012 (61-101) Cubs, unless Raley comes back.
He was servicable. Good garbage time reliever. Wouldn’t want him ever in a big spot. Hopefully he will never be back on the team again
The metros never need to worry about big spots. Loser franchise.
More overly-negative exaggeration from LFGMETS!
I thought were done ‘wasting time’ on this franchise? You’ve literally written hundreds of BS comments stating that. Maybe you’re just a pessimistic loser?
He earned $1 million for every inning he pitched this year
More brilliant Mets economics
What the hell does his salary have to do with being injured? How is his salary divided by innings pitched a reflection of bad financial management?
You’re a miserable tw@t who couldn’t figure out how to sneak your misunderstand of the Bobby Bonilla contact into a post about Brooks Raley (even tho this is a week old post) so you just made up this BS.
just 1 thought before i mute you.
i might crap on the muts, they deserve it
and their fans might be naive & hopeless & sometimes simply out of their minds.
but i never crap on anyone. i never name call. i’m never rude. sometimes people are ignorant and deserve to hear some hard truth.
but i try to keep things civil despite how passionate i get. i suggest you do the same. or, better, just stop talking altogether. nobody will miss you or your comments.
Hey hypocrite
“but i try to keep things civil despite how passionate i get” in the same comment as “might crap on the muts, they deserve it and their fans might be naive & hopeless & sometimes simply out of their minds”
You’re most arrogant and unnecessarily negative person here. Be quick and mute me you thin skinned pansy.
Small note on team control of Raley: He is actually arbitration eligible for 2025 season, so the Mets do have team control next year, he is not technically a free agent after this year.
raley pitched well, when healthy, i dont think it’d be crazy to bring him back in ’25. look at someone like blake treinen on the dodgers. he missed 2 seasons (bc of TJ i believe). he came back this year and is now closing games, with a 0.00 era so far