The problem with the Mets’ usage of Brooks Raley

Once upon a time, the Mets had a reliever named Alex Torres. He was by no means a great pitcher and if anyone remembers him today, it’s because he wore “The Great Gazoo” hat with the extra padding in it. Torres was a lefty reliever with reverse platoon splits. His Mets career happened during the Sandy Alderson/Terry Collins regime that believed the absolute key to a successful bullpen was to create as many matchups for your lefty reliever versus lefty batters as humanly possible.

For his career, Torres had an OPS 85 points higher against lefty batters than righty ones. And in his brief time with the Mets, it was 144 points higher. Thru the end of June, Torres had a 2.52 ERA and limited batters to a .668 OPS. Torres always walked a lot of batters, so his WHIP was high. But overall, he was doing a nice job. Then he went thru the rough patch that we know every reliever goes thru, allowing runs six times in eight games. After that stretch, he recorded 3.2 scoreless innings. And then the Mets cut him, because he couldn’t get lefties out.

Anyone who took the slightest glance at Torres’ MLB numbers would understand immediately that he was not a typical lefty, one who did a good job at shutting down lefty batters. The Mets tried to use him in a role he wasn’t suited for at the slightest. And to make matters worse, he enjoyed worse luck than normal facing lefties. All the planets aligned against Torres that season. But by far the biggest problem was the way he was being used.

Which brings us to Brooks Raley.

The Mets traded for Raley to give them a solid lefty in the pen. Unlike Torres, Raley had very good numbers versus lefty batters in his career. But Raley had been having success versus righties the past two seasons. And he had his best results in his career versus RHB in 2022. That season, righties slashed .208/.301/.272 versus Raley in 143 PA, nearly twice as many as the 76 PA he had versus lefties. The Rays did not use Raley as a situational lefty last year and he had the best season of his career.

And as good as he was versus righties last year, he’s been even better this season. In 48 PA versus righty batters, Raley has limited them to a .146/.271/.244 line. You’d be thrilled if your righty reliever posted that versus RHB. You’d think the Mets would be jumping for joy with how Raley has done this year without the platoon advantage.

Recall how Raley faced one-third of his batters in 2022 with the platoon advantage. This year he’s faced 50 lefties, compared to 48 righties. Because for most of the year, Raley has been the only lefty in the pen. And while it’s most likely a small sample issue, lefties have an .871 OPS against Raley here in 2023. So, knowing that – what’s the best way to use Raley going forward?

It’s not as cut-and-dried as it was with Torres, who should have been used as if he were a righty. Raley has a history of being effective versus lefties. Regression will likely come and he’ll return to being lights-out against lefties. The problem is that you don’t know if regression will come starting with his next outing or if it will take a week or a month or a year.

But while we wait for him to return to dominance against LHB, we can question why the Mets are avoiding using him if a lefty doesn’t lead off the inning. Last night in a tie game entering the seventh inning, the Mets used Jeff Brigham instead of Raley because the leadoff hitter was a righty batter. Brigham has given the Mets a league-average reliever season, while Raley’s been their second-best reliever. Rest wasn’t an issue. There was no reason to prefer Brigham in the game over Raley outside of the platoon advantage with the first batter.

Brigham issued a leadoff walk and then hit the next batter, a lefty. Two batters later, Buck Showalter brought on Raley to face another lefty. He allowed a hit to the lefty and then retired the righty to end the inning. But the issue isn’t what Raley did in one game – it’s what he’s done in all of 2023 and 2022, too.

In his last 317 PA versus RHB, Raley has limited them to a .202/.282/.309 line. And we can go back even further than that. Counting the last two months of 2021, Raley has 382 PA versus righties and has limited them to a .577 OPS.

At what point does Raley’s recent success versus righties become more important than his lifetime numbers?

There’s no hard-and-fast answer to that question. But given that it’s lasted over a year-and-a-half at this point, it seems crazy to use an inferior pitcher in a high-leverage situation because a righty is due up, like the Mets did last night.

There’s nothing wrong with bringing Raley in the game in a key moment when a lefty is up. The problem is when the 2023 Mets, with limited good relievers, refuse to bring him into a game because a righty leads off.

There’s absolutely no reason to use Raley as a glorified LOOGY, giving him the Scott Rice treatment. At this point, there’s more evidence for using him as the primary eighth-inning reliever over Adam Ottavino rather than looking to limit his exposure to RHB. Unlike when a runner gets on base versus Ottavino, it doesn’t automatically translate to a runner in scoring position if Raley is in the game.