ST. PETERSBURG — Brooks Raley did some pretty good work as a reliever for the Astros over the last two seasons.
But the opportunity to get even better is what led the left-hander to sign on with the Rays, finalizing a two-year, $10 million deal with a 2024 option.
Raley, 33, said the chance to benefit from the Rays’ advanced analytical and technical pitching programs, and to work with pitching coach Kyle Snyder and manager Kevin Cash, were very appealing. As is pitching in front of one of the league’s best defenses.
“It just felt like the perfect fit,” Raley said after signing his contract Tuesday afternoon. “This is kind of the next step for me. I feel like these guys are kind of the mecca of pitching and labs and all the stuff that’s so attractive in the game now and where it’s going, and I just want to be part of it.”
Raley said the Rays expressed their interest at the start of free agency, and while he talked with other teams he kept coming back to them as the right choice for him, his wife and three young daughters. He will get $4.25 million in 2022 and $4.5 million in 2023, with either a $1.25 million buyout or $6.5 million option for 2024.
“It was a very open, honest conversation,” Raley said. “They were like, ‘We want you,’ and I got to talk to Kyle and Cash early. And after those conversations, I was just like, ‘You know, this feels like a good fit. We’ll kind of continue to test the market and whatnot.’
“But as things got closer and talking to other teams, that just kind of kept coming up — I’ve always wanted to be the best player I could be. And for me — it was obviously a family choice first — and this just felt right.”
![Brooks Raley says on a Zoom call from the Rays clubhouse he is excited about the opportunity to improve his game.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"%20viewBox="0%200%201366%20768"/%3E "Brooks Raley says on a Zoom call from the Rays clubhouse he is excited about the opportunity to improve his game.")
He said he is comfortable in the Rays’ no set role bullpen format, is open to pitching multiple innings and is especially looking forward to getting to pitch in high-leverage situations.
Raley ranked among the majors’ best last season with an average exit velocity of 83 mph, hard hit rate of 21.5 percent and strikeout rate of 31.7 percent, while going 2-3, 4.78 in 58 games, striking out 65 over 45 innings.
He had extraordinary success against lefties, using his combination of a slow curve and slider with horizontal movement and a cutter to allow just a .195 average (15 for 77, two extra-base hits) and .483 OPS, striking out 35 of the 85 he faced.
He wasn’t as good against right-handers, though he said he felt he did better than the numbers showed: a .259 average (28-for-108, 10 extra-base hits) and .796 OPS.
Plus, he and the Rays have already talked about ways to maximize his repertoire, such as throwing cutters to both sides of the plate and using his changeup more.
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Explore all your options“I’m really excited about the potential and the growth and the opportunities,” he said. “I just feel like there’s more in the tank and I want to grow as a player and as a person and I thought Tampa was a perfect fit for that.”
Adding Raley filled the Rays’ 40-man roster, so they have to open an additional spot on Wednesday to make room for starter Corey Kluber, the two-time Cy Young Award winner who agreed to a one-year, $8 million deal with the chance to earn up to $5 million more based on starts made.
The Rays could address that with a trade, or as part of their decision-making on Tuesday night whether to tender contracts to all 15 of their arbitration eligible players. That league-wide 8 p.m. deadline was moved up two days so it would be done before the Wednesday night expiration of baseball’s labor agreement, and the expected lockout and transactions freeze to follow.
The 15 arbitration-eligible Rays (with projected salaries by mlbtraderumors.com) are pitchers Tyler Glasnow ($5.8 million), Ryan Yarbrough ($4.4M), Matt Wisler ($1.8M), Andrew Kittredge ($1.6M), Yonny Chirinos ($1.2M), Jeffrey Springs ($1M), Nick Anderson ($900,000), Jalen Beeks ($600,000); outfielders Manuel Margot ($5M), Austin Meadows ($4.3M), Brett Phillips ($1.2M); infielders Joey Wendle ($4M), Ji-Man Choi ($3.5M), Yandy Diaz ($2.7M); and catcher Francisco Mejia ($1.5M).
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