Left-hander Brooks Raley is drawing interest from clubs as he continues rehabbing from Tommy John surgery over the summer, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. The Cubs and Yankees are among the clubs to have reached out and some teams have discussed multi-year arrangements with Raley, though it’s not clear if the Cubs and Yankees are among the teams to have expressed multi-year interest.
Raley, 36, made his big league debut with the Cubs back in 2012 but totaled just 38 1/3 innings of work before departing stateside ball for South Korea back in 2015. He spent several years pitching in the KBO before resurfacing in the majors during the 2020 season as a middle relief option. He enjoyed a late-career breakout in Tampa back in 2022, however, and since then has been nothing short of excellent when healthy enough to take the mound with a 2.58 ERA (153 ERA+), a 3.13 FIP, and a 27.3% strikeout rate over the past three years with the Rays and Mets.
Dominant as he’s been in recent years, a player on the wrong side of 35 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery comes with plenty of question marks. That might make the idea of a multi-year deal seem somewhat surprising, but in some ways it could actually help the acquiring club more reliably secure a return on their investment. After all, Raley figures to only be available for the second half in 2025 and some players need time to shake off the rust following a long layoff like the one Raley is currently experiencing. Given that, a deal that pays Raley a relatively low salary for 2025 but comes with a second guaranteed year at a higher rate could make sense for both sides by guaranteeing Raley a longer-term opportunity coming off surgery while affording the club some protection against Raley struggling in his initial return from surgery before righting the ship and returning to form later on.
Looking at the teams being connected to Raley, it’s fairly easy to see why he’d be of interest to them. The Cubs have been in the market for relief help all winter. While the club already signed Caleb Thielbar as a left-handed option for their bullpen last month, that likely wouldn’t preclude them from adding a player like Raley because he is both more of a bonafide late-inning arm than Thielbar and wouldn’t factor into the club’s Opening Day roster due to his rehab timeline. Chicago has shown a willingness to sign rehabbing players in the past, as well. They were involved in Liam Hendriks’ market last winter and previously signed players like Kendall Graveman and Drew Smyly while they were rehabbing.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have already added Devin Williams to replace Clay Holmes in the ninth inning, giving them a strong one-two punch at the back of the bullpen with Luke Weaver set for an eighth-inning role. One place where the club’s bullpen could stand to be upgraded, however, is from the left side. Southpaw Tim Hill pitched well for the Yanks in 2024 but is currently a free agent. While Raley wouldn’t be available for at least the first half of the season, the club currently has no left-handed relievers on their 40-man roster and could be forced to use a reverse-splits righty like Mark Leiter Jr. against tough left-handed relievers in 2025 without an external addition.
Why hasn’t Tim Hill been brought back yet? Bring Houdini back to the Yankees to finish his career as well. Zero sense of urgency on the Yankees. Spring training is about a month away. LET’S GO!!!!
To spite you and you alone.
Sure. Sign Alonso so Goldschmidt or Stanton can play 3B. Ya gotta step up your trolling-game, bro. The voices in your head don’t count as sources.
@mlb @178
I’m not sure who’s more annoying, Yankee haters or fellow Yankee fans. Yanks have $25 mil invested in their bullpen already, are pressed up against the 4th tier of the lux tax and have to be careful because a $5 mik deal is actually $10 mil and right now another top bullpen arm is a bit of a luxury. As for Alonzo, use common sense. They must have Goldy $12 mil and they have Stanton locked in at the DH position. Why in the world would they be interested in Alonzo right now? To suggest the Yanks “struggle to compete” for FA is laughable. 90% of them go where the most money is and if the Yanks were inclined, they’d likely step up and put a string offer in and likely overpay if needed. Yanks went after Fried and had 7 SP on the payroll. Stop with the madness. As for the pen, I’d line to have DRob back but there’s still time and week see. But relax. They’ve been one of the most active teams this winter and I’m not sure how you can not be appreciative as a fan. As for you @178. keep gluck gluck gluckin on energy Yankee post with these silly narratives you’re trying to push.
The Yankees are going to dump Stroman soon enough. I see their budget being about 15-20 million max. That includes the 12 million or so they shed while paying down Stroman’s deal and bit. 2 more bullpen arms, and an infielder. Everything else is coming from within.
178iq, you have 0 idea what you are talking about lmfao.
Nice job embarrassing yourself with that braindead comment
Alonzo has never been on the Yankees radar.
So your reliable source is unreliable. Lol
Cashman said the Yankees were focused on run prevention after signing Max Fried. So far his subsequent moves has achieved that with Belli and Goldy upgrading their defense. Alonso is not good defensively.
I notice this guy 178iq on the board whenever the NYY’s are mentioned. Says nothing, contributes absolutely nothing of any value, BS’s himself in every post. It seems to be killing him that the Yankees are doing everything right this offseason. He has a “reliable source”? Who would talk to him?
He’s a Red Sox fan.
This is a great spot for…
Reliable sources: Trust me, bro.
Also, your shtick was tired last year. Time to give it up or least lay off the sauce a bit.
Your “zero sense of urgency” sounds ridiculous after this offseason. They’ve spent, they’ve traded, and are in a good position in this final leg before pitchers and catchers. There’s going to be a few more moves to be sure (i hope!), but the Yanks can now afford to be patient and get a deal they want that fits the team and (sorry) budget. We act (heck me too at times) like the money don’t matter, but at some point it does. At least to them. So let’s see how it goes. We’re already better than last year, but we do need a lefty. Otherwise, if they call it done afterwards, I *could* see why.
A clear example of the Yankees superiority when it comes to spending money on their bullpen: In 2019 they spent about $46 million on their bullpen and won 103 games. Then they got bounced in the playoffs by the Astros who had spent a little over half that amount on their bullpen. Oh wait, not really superior after all.
Huh.
The Yankees: Good at spending money, not so good at winning.
You totally contradicted yourself, buddy. A 103 win season says otherwise. Anything can happen in a short series.
I wonder if Jed Hoyer buys his clothing at the thrift store too.
Only his underwear.
If it’s good enough for Jack Reacher…….
Do you truly believe that Jed enjoys pinching Ricketts Pennie’s? Seriously? I get the criticism for Jed, but to think Tom has authorized a $300M payroll and Jed is overriding him to punch Pennie’s is laughable. He does what he can within the budget given. We all wish Tom would seriously bud on the Harper’s and Soto’s.
That’s fair. He’s just trying to maximize profits for the tightwad Ricketts clan.
Now Hoyer is chasing 36 year old TJ surgery pitchers. Please defend him some more. He had like 70 million bucks to get to the Luxury Tax and is signing guys who should be in the movie Field of Dreams. Now tell me how again that it’s Ricketts doing? Yeah, That’s what I thought.
Given the minimal investment (presumably) I don’t have an issue with this type of move but Hoyer’s offseason has been a dumpster fire.
Fanboys disagree but this team would have been better off rolling back what they had minus the deadweight of Madrigal, Wisdom, Bote, Smyly etc. and then replacing them with Shaw, Canario, and a high leverage reliever.
As is, this team completely lacks depth. The roster is a Hail Mary pass of hoping every one remains healthy, that there is no sophomore slumps and Shaw can produce a 3 WAR minimum.
There are still some quality players available, Jake Flaherty was on my first “wish list” but it seems unlikely.
Just because you pay a SP more money doesn’t mean their results will be better. If a team like the CUBs (or others DET,LAA, OAK, WASH) wants to improve their depth there is Quintana, Junis, Scherzer and others still available on short term deals
Many teams still have work to do to improve their BP (like 20)
Timing is a big issue I believe, Every GM may have some regrets signing a lesser choice once a player they had interest in drops their price and years demand.
You can only wait so long and then you will miss out
HOU wanted to get their situation resolved and didn’t want to wait for Bregman or Arenado
Discount rack Jed
Theo saw the direction things were going and left a year before his contract was up with his dignity. Jed has no dignity.
This is why the Cubs should have never allowed Hoyer to reach “lame duck” status.
Hoyer has never picked a lane his entire time as PBO. He’s spent a ton of money on mediocre talent and in some cases flat out bad players (Mancini).
Something that I will never understand is why, when you are in a non-competitive window, are you handing out no trade clauses? I completely get it on occasion, win now move, veteran that wants stability and they are an anchor point for your franchise but Happ? Suzuki? Swanson?
Another thing, why would you trade Cam Smith (and Paredes and Wesneski) for Tucker if you were not going to make notable improvements to the roster? It’s not even spring training and I’m curious about the return the Cubs can get when they trade him at the deadline.
It started out OK. he dumped the old guard, He signed Vets he could move at the deadline then it got weird. He signed Happ to an extension, Signed Suziki, Signed Swanson and gave them all NTC’s when he had a stockpile of young OF’s and SS’s( They still do by the way), Then he signed Bellinger on a 1 year deal( That was OK), But then when he had no market at all gave him a 3 year over priced deal with player opt outs. Huh? I’ve been saying for years he has no plan. I retract that, He has a plan to have no plan to see how many people he can get to tear their hair out. Still have no established Closer despite having all the money to get one. I know I’ve said the Cubs have Closers in the system but you can’t count on first year guys to take on that kind of pressure. This is where Ricketts needs to step in and say enough is enough.You can’t let this man deal away future talent like Horton, Assad, Steele, or anyone with a long term future. He needs to be muzzled after the Cam Smith and Rosario debacles.
“forced to use a reverse-splits righty like Mark Leiter Jr. against tough left-handed relievers in 2025 without an external addition”
I don’t think it would take any kind of special talent to get outs against lefty relievers when they’re at the plate
Legend has it there is still no such thing as a DH in the NL…
legend has it that a phenom from a faraway land pitched and hit for a team in the AL because he would have to play outfield for the better NL team in the same city
He literally didn’t give up a run last year and has a 2.48 era with the Mets. Is their anyone who you don’t complain about?
It must suck when every day is Opposite Day in your house
The Yankees need a lefty reliever to start the season, as they have none, so this one holds no water.
Tim Hill shouldn’t break the bank even if he does get a raise, Cashman should get him back. He was great in the playoffs too.
I think grabbing a Raley to put in the reserve is fine, but they’ll get another reliever for sure. Hill or Minter.
Jed wants to go into the season w 27 soft-tossing mediocre arms on the 40-man.
Jed shed pretty much all of Bellinger’s contract, so he had money to work with, yet he keeps dumpster diving…
He could’ve easily signed Hoffman and Minter- assuming they would be interested in playing for the Cubs. Instead, Hoyer is going to acquire 10 dumpster arms for “depth.”
That’s so unlike the Yankees being interested in a 37 year old still in rehab…
Brooks raley? Give me a break however you can be sure the cubs are interested in a 36 year old rehabbing pitcher. So typical cubs!
Brooks was here
So was Red
Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying.
Shawshank Redemption reference like 2 others above
So for the Mets it looks like no Brooks Raley, Phil Matom and no Ryne Stanek this year. A full season of both Matom and Stanek in 2024 would have made a big difference the first have of last season.
I would take both back again with Raley when he can come back.
David Sterns always shops in the bargin bins and so the bull pen really hurt the Mets for awhile last season. Plus the stupid delay in signing JD Martinez till the end of Spring training so Martinez missed the first month of the season. They signed late to safe a million then paid him $2mil to sit out April.
So frustrating some times
They probably have other players they prefer like one of T.Scott, AJ Minter etc. They may have to pivot quickly if those 2 sign elsewhere.
Out of the 3 – IMO Raley and Maton have the most value used in limited roles. Raleys non availability for a big portion of 2025 is a big issue as a 2nd or 3rd LH in your BP
At this point with spring training a month away. The luxury tax is the big obstacle. Dump stromans salary trade him for a back upmiddle infielder with a 2-3 million salary and eat most of the contract.. Give tim hill a 2 year 6 million contract and offer jurickson profar 1 year 8 million with a option 2year 8 mill… and be done yankeeswould be about 298 mill..
Jed loves him a good reclamation project. Nothing wrong with betting on a long shot once in a while, but it can’t be the core of your plan to come out on top.
Really getting tired of the bargain basement approach that Cashman is using to fill both an infield gap and adding to the relief corp……when are the Yankees going to stop with the .220 hitting…good glove 2nd base candidates that nobody else wants, and +35 year old pitchers coming off TJ surgery…….
@Rocky The offseason isn’t over yet. What solutions are you proposing besides pointing out your issues with the team?
Now the Yanks are just turning a mostly good off-season into a bad joke.
Hard to understand the logic in NYY not offering Tim Hill a contract. He seemed to be a key arm for them and displayed great competitiveness on the mound. He would not require a long term contract . I don’t get it.
Another disastrous piece by Mr. Deeds. “Dominant as he’s been” is not proper English. You can’t just leave “as” out at the start of the sentence. It’s not optional, nor is correct grammar for a “professional” writer. And “meanwhile” has to start the sentence, not come in the middle between commas.