{"id":558368,"date":"2026-02-06T19:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558368\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:52:32","slug":"rangers-ryan-brasier-finalizing-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558368\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers, Ryan Brasier Finalizing Minor League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

11:46am: It\u2019ll be a minor league deal with a non-roster invitation to spring training once the deal is complete, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

10:47am: The Rangers are finalizing a deal with right-hander Ryan Brasier<\/a>, reports<\/a> Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. It\u2019d be a homecoming for the ALIGND Sports client, who was born in Wichita Falls, Texas and attended college in Weatherford, just 40 miles west of Arlington.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brasier spent the 2025 season with the Cubs but was limited to just 26 innings thanks to a pair of groin injuries \u2014 one which kept him out of action for nearly two months. He logged a 4.50 earned run average when healthy and set down 19% of his opponents on strikes while recording a tiny 4.8% walk rate. A .321 average on balls in play \u2014 30 points higher than average and 40 north of Brasier\u2019s career mark \u2014 at least partially inflated his ERA. Metrics like SIERA (3.74) and FIP (3.17) were more bullish.<\/p>\n

Injuries have hampered the now-38-year-old righty in each of the past two seasons. In 2024, Brasier tossed 28 innings with the Dodgers, missing considerable time due a right calf strain. He was generally effective that season as well, logging a 3.54 ERA with a 22.7% strikeout rate and another excellent walk rate (4.5%).<\/p>\n

Overall, Brasier\u2019s last three seasons have been solid \u2014 at least when he\u2019s been healthy enough to take the mound. He\u2019s put a nightmare 2022 season (5.78 ERA in 62 1\/3 inning) in the rearview mirror, bouncing back with a combined 3.48 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate, two saves and 20 holds in a total of 113 2\/3 frames. That said, it\u2019s worth noting that last year\u2019s 94 mph average four-seam velocity was down substantially from the 95.7 mph he averaged as recently as 2023. Perhaps accordingly, his 9.7% swinging-strike rate was a career-low \u2014 and the first time in his career that he\u2019s posted a mark decidedly south of the league average (11%).<\/p>\n

Whether a healthier Brasier will be able to regain some of the lost velocity and strikeouts in his age-38 season remains to be seen, but the right-hander still possesses excellent command. He keeps the ball on the ground at a roughly average rate and has managed to avoid home runs over the past three seasons (0.63 HR\/9).<\/p>\n

If he makes the roster, Brasier will be the latest low-cost addition to a Rangers bullpen that has given out one-year deals to veterans Chris Martin<\/a>, Alexis Diaz<\/a>, Tyler Alexander<\/a> and Jakob Junis<\/a> this season. It\u2019s the second straight year that Texas brass has cobbled together its relief corps primarily by way of low-cost free agent deals. It worked out quite well in 2025, as the Rangers got strong results from Martin, Hoby Milner<\/a>, Jacob Webb<\/a> and Shawn Armstrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding success on that many one-year pickups of relievers \u2014 perennially MLB\u2019s most volatile performers \u2014 isn\u2019t a sustainable way to put together a bullpen, but reductions in payroll in recent seasons have pushed president of baseball operations Chris Young to take this sort of piecemeal approach. Ideally, the Rangers would see some of their younger arms step up to fill some of the spots, just as Cole Winn<\/a> did in 2025. Winn will be one of the primary setup options for closer Robert Garcia<\/a>, whom Texas acquired in the trade sending Nathaniel Lowe<\/a> to Washington last winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"11:46am: It\u2019ll be a minor league deal with a non-roster invitation to spring training once the deal is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,4,149,2165,1567,69,3240],"class_list":["post-558368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas-rangers","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-rangers","tag-ryan-brasier","tag-texas","tag-texas-rangers","tag-texasrangers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116025436274914472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}