The Mets used a tremendous amount of pitchers in 2025; if you count position players, 46 pitchers tossed off the mount last year for the Mets. 29 pitchers pitched in relief for the Mets last season, and of all that pitched in at least five games, only seven are still in the organization and/or aren’t out for the entirety of 2026 with injuries: Huascar Brazobán, A.J. Minter, Brandon Waddell, Justin Hagenman, Richard Lovelady, Kevin Herget, and Brooks Raley.
Of all of those pitchers, Raley is the one that is probably easiest to project going into 2026. He’s been a very good left-handed reliever for some time now, coming back from Korea in the 2020 season, but really coming into his own in 2022 as a member of the Rays. After a trade to the Mets before the 2023 season, Raley has established himself as the Mets’ preeminent lefty when healthy. In ‘23, he appeared in 66 games with a 2.80 ERA. He got hurt in 2024 and missed most of the season, but started the year with seven scoreless innings before getting hurt.
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After re-signing with the Mets while hurt, Raley returned to the big league mound in July of 2025 and was quite good: 25.2 innings of work, just seven earned runs, 25 strikeouts to six walks, no home runs, and a 2.45 ERA. The Mets very wisely picked up his option for 2026, and he returns to the Mets as their most veteran member of the relief corps.
Raley works with mainly four pitches: a sweeper, a sinker, a cutter, and a change-up. He relies mostly on the sweeper, throwing it just over 40% of the time. He makes up for a lack of velocity by getting a nice amount of spin on his balls; in his last season of regular work, Raley had elite fastball spin, which led to low exit velocity, and very few hard-hit or barreled balls.
Raley is enetering his age 38 season, so he’s no young gun, but with Minter starting the year on the IL and a proven track record of success, Raley will be the Mets’ primary lefty out of the bullpen as the season starts. Whether he can maintain that role once Minter returns remains to be seen, but the combination of his consistency and stuff will ensure that he’ll get lots of usage out of the bullpen this year.
One final note on Raley: he was one of five Tampa Bay Rays to opt out of wearing Rays LGBTQIA+ Pride-themed gear for their 2022 Pride Night. Raley did not comment on his decision.
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