Reds trade LHP Brooks Raley to Houston for a PTBNL

The Cincinnati Reds have announced that they’ve traded left-handed pitcher Brooks Raley to the Houston Astros for a player to be named later. Raley was designated for assignment on Thursday by Cincinnati and placed on waivers.

The #Reds have traded LHP Brooks Raley to the Astros for a player to be named later. Raley was designated for assignment on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/qmVowykfX0

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 10, 2020

The left-handed pitcher made 30 starts or more in Korea from 2015-2019 for the Lotte Giants with varying degrees of success. In three of his five seasons his ERA was under 4.00, but was 4.34 and 4.74 in the other two years. He signed with the Reds on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training in the offseason and eventually won a job with the team.

With a full rotation, the Reds put Brooks Raley in the bullpen hoping that the lefty with a high spin rate fastball could have success against hitters from both sides of the plate. In his four appearances once the season began, though, he struggled as he allowed four runs in 4.0 innings on five hits, two walks, three hit batters, and six strikeouts. The sample size was small, of course, but things didn’t go his way when he was on the mound. Now he’ll get his chance with Houston to see if he can turn things around.

As for the return for the Reds – it was announced as a player to be named later. If that player is named this season it would have to be from a player in the Astros player pool as those are the only players allowed to be traded this year. I’m not entirely sure how the rules work this season with regards to players to be named later and if they can be named following the season and thus don’t need to come from the 60-man player pool or not. We’re all going to have to learn that one together.