Dodgers Gauging Trade Interest In Ryan Brasier

It’s been an eventful week in the Dodgers’  bullpen. Los Angeles agreed to sign top free-agent reliever Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72MM guarantee over the weekend and is working to finalize a deal with fellow late-inning weapon Kirby Yates. At the same time, they’ve learned of some forearm inflammation for top setup man Michael Kopech (which may or may not have influenced the decisions to more aggressively pursue Scott and Yates).

There could be more activity on the horizon. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that with the likely need to open a 40-man spot — they’re currently at 39 players, with Scott and Yates yet to be announced — the Dodgers have been shopping around some of their “surplus” of big league players who could be squeezed out by the recent additions. Among the names being discussed with other clubs, per the report, is righty reliever Ryan Brasier.

Brasier, 37, signed a two-year deal with the Dodgers last winter. He’s guaranteed a total of $9MM over the term of the contract and is owed $4.5MM in 2025. The veteran righty has enjoyed a resurgence in L.A. after hitting a rough patch in his final couple years with the Red Sox. Brasier pitched to a solid 3.54 earned run average in ’24, albeit in a sample of just 28 innings. A calf strain shelved Brasier for more than three months this past year, though he finished the season healthy. Still, between that performance and a big second-half showing in L.A. the prior season, Brasier boasts a 1.89 ERA, 24.9% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate in 66 2/3 frames as a Dodger.

Strong as that performance has been, Brasier could find himself the odd man out. The Dodgers are adding Scott and likely Yates to a late-inning group that already includes Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia and 2024 breakout lefty Anthony Banda. Brasier was already used primarily in low-  and medium-leverage spots last year anyhow. Scott and Yates (again, if finalized) would add two premium high-leverage arms to the fold. The Dodgers could be without Kopech early in the season, but they’re still expecting to get more innings from him than they did last year, since he was a deadline pickup who didn’t join the club until late July. They’ll also hope for a healthier year for Treinen, who was limited to 46 2/3 innings in 2024.

Beyond the wealth of experienced names pushing Brasier to an ostensible low-leverage role, the Dodgers’ bullpen simply lacks flexibility as currently constructed. Vesia is the only Dodgers reliever who can be optioned, but he’s coming off a 1.76 ERA and 33.1% strikeout rate over 66 1/3 innings. He’s not going to be sent to Triple-A anytime soon. The Dodgers also seem likely to deploy a six-man rotation early on, leaving only seven spots in the bullpen. Simply adding Yates into the mix would seemingly necessitate a trade of a reliever, and it’s defensible if Brasier is viewed as the odd man out.

From the Dodgers’ perspective, moving Brasier would save more than $4.5MM anyhow. His contract contains $2MM per season worth of incentives based on appearances, and they’re of course in the top tier of luxury penalization. Brasier’s $4.5MM annual value on his contract comes with a 110% tax; he’s costing the Dodgers $9.45MM for the upcoming season. Dealing him won’t reduce their penalty level at all, but trimming nearly $10MM off the 2025 budget and opening up further roster space hold obvious appeal.

The looming additions of Scott and Yates to the roster aren’t the only moves on the Dodgers’ horizon. At some point, they’ll formally bring Clayton Kershaw back into the mix. The two parties could theoretically wait until camp opens so Kershaw’s deal can be accommodated by transferring a pitcher to the 60-day injured list, but there’d still be active roster considerations with that move. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May are all in the rotation mix at present. Scott, Yates, Phillips, Kopech, Treinen, Vesia and Banda are in the ’pen.

That’s 13 pitchers even without Kershaw. Injuries could sort that out organically, with Kopech an obvious possibility to miss some time early in the year. Having such depth is never bad for a club, but the potential for additional names to be squeezed off the 40-man roster is readily apparent. Among the players on the 40-man roster but ticketed for Triple-A are pitchers Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Michael Grove, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski and Nick Frasso.