TRADE: Cubs Acquire Right-Handed Reliever Ryan Brasier from Dodgers

[Matthew Trueblood]

In what should be their final bullpen move of the offseason, the Cubs have swooped in to scoop up the Dodgers' veteran hurler, who had been designated for assignment last week.

Image courtesy of © Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Ever since the Dodgers were forced to cut Ryan Brasier to accommodate Kirby Yates last week, the Cubs have made sense as his landing place. Brasier, 37, is on the second year of a very affordable two-year, $9-million pact he signed with the Dodgers on this very date last year. He'll join Ryan Pressly, Caleb Thielbar and Eli Morgan as veteran newcomers in an overhauled Chicago relief corps.

You can read much more about Brasier (and the implications this move could have for the balance of the Cubs' plans for this offseason) here. We'll also update this with further details, as we gather them.

An erstwhile slider monster who only found very inconsistent success across a handful of seasons with the Red Sox, Brasier landed in Los Angeles at the 2023 trade deadline, just after he'd begun tinkering with a cutter. He then fully implemented that pitch, and his career took off. He only pitch 66 2/3 regular-season and 11 1/3 postseason innings for the Dodgers, but in that time, his stock skyrocketed. His fastball shapes aren't especially deceptive, given his arm slot, but he makes up for that with solid velocity that plays up because of plus extension at release.

Brasier's ability to lean on the slider but keep hitters off his fastball with the cutter, effectively making it a bridge pitch that works well because he works in short bursts, has proved transformative.

The really nice thing about Brasier, relative to fellow superannuated righty and free agent David Robertson, is that he only stands to make $4.5 million in 2025. That leaves the Cubs some financial wiggle room, as they now turn their attention to hunting big game (be it Alex Bregman, Dylan Cease, or some other, mystery target) in the endgame of the offseason.

That's medium-term, at the moment. We have yet to suss out whom the Cubs will give up to get Brasier, but it won't be someone from their 40-man roster, which means they'll have to cut someone or make another trade, since their own 40-man was also full before this move. Plenty of balls remain in the air here.

UPDATE: Maddie Lee of the Sun-Times brings the news first: Brasier begets a player to be named later, so the Cubs will trim someone inessential—there are plenty of options at the end of the pitching side of the roster, right now—and absorb the salary, without giving up a major piece.

 

However, that doesn't mean the player eventually named won't have real value. The Cubs weren't the only team interested in Brasier and the list of players from which they and the Dodgers will pick the return at some point is likely to include at least an interesting prospect or two, albeit a lower-level one.

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[D.J.]

This is turning into an impressive off-season.  And if we do bag one of your parenthetical big game, Cubs will have replaced nearly half of the 25 man since last season.  Thats quite a rebuild for an offseason that wasnt supposed to be a rebuild.

[cubsguy20]

Now let's land Alex Bregman

[Crusader]

Yeah, the off-season explained in one word is "depth", and that's from an organization that already had some nice talent in its minors.