Luke Raley

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Lucas John Raley

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Biographical Information[edit]

OF/1B Luke Raley was selected in the 7th round of the 2016 amateur draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Lake Erie College. He began his professional career that season with the AZL Dodgers and also took the field with the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League and the Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League before the year was over. Between the three stops, he hit .288/.355/.446 in 66 games for a very promising debut. In 2017, he spent the whole season in the California League with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, hitting .295 with 21 doubles, 11 triples and 14 homers in 123 games.

He began the 2018 season in AA with the Tulsa Drillers and after 93 games was hitting .275. On July 31st, he was sent to the Minnesota Twins as part of the deal in which the Dodgers and Twins exchanged second basemen, with Brian Dozier going to L.A. and Logan Forsythe to Minnesota. Luke finished the year with the Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern League, where he hit .276 in 27 games. In 120 games between the two teams, he hit 19 doubles, 8 triples and 20 homers, while driving in 69 runs. However, his progression was slowed down in 2019, when an injury limited him to 33 games with the AAA Rochester Red Wings, in addition to a 5-game rehabilitation assignment with the GCL Twins. He hit .302 for Rochester, with 7 homers and 21 RBIs, then played in the Arizona Fall League after the season.

On February 9, 2020, he was re-acquired by the Dodgers as part of the convoluted blockbuster deal that had sent Mookie Betts and David Price from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles. A side part of that deal involved the Twins acquiring P Kenta Maeda, and sending top pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol to the Red Sox. However, the Red Sox balked after seeing the results of a physical exam on Graterol, threatening the whole deal. It was saved when the Dodgers agreed to take Graterol themselves, in exchange for two other prospects (they had already sent Alex Verdugo to Boston), Jeter Downs and Connor Wong. Raley got thrown in as part of a side deal between the Twins and the Dodgers meant to even things out. The Twins were to receive a player to be named later (who turned out to be Jair Camargo), while ceding a compensation round B pick to Los Angeles.

Luke was put on the Dodgers' 40-man roster during the 2020 season, but he did not see playing time with them. He made his debut the following season, on April 9, 2021, playing two innings in right field and going 0 for 1 in a 1-0 win over the Washington Nationals. He appeared in 33 games in the majors that season, hitting .182 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs. He also had one at-bat in the Wild Card Game against the St. Louis Cardinals, in which he struck out. He played the bulk of that season in the minors with the Oklahoma City Dodgers, where he hit .294 with 19 homers and 69 RBIs in 72 games.

Just before the 2022 season, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays on March 18th in return for minor leaguer Tanner Dodson. At the major league level, his numbers were very similar to those he had put up the previous year, as he hit .197 in 22 games, with 1 homer and 4 RBIs. Again, he spent the bulk of the year in the minors, this time with the Durham Bulls, where he hit .300 in 63 games, with 14 homers and 50 RBIs.

With nothing left to prove in the minors, he made the Rays as a corner outfielder and first baseman in 2023 and finally received significant playing time. On August 16th, he became the first player for the Rays to hit an inside-the-park homer as a pinch-hitter. It came at Oracle Park against the San Francisco Giants against Ross Stripling in the 6th inning. He hit a ball to the deepest part of right field, which would likely have been a homer in any other major league ballpark. It bounced off an angled part of structure forming the fence at a distance of 425 feet from home plate, and headed towards the center field wall, where it bounced again, away from centerfielder Wade Meckler who was trying to help out RF Michael Conforto. Even though Raley has never been known for his running prowess, he was able to circle the bases and cross home plate standing up by the time the ball had reached the cut-off man. In 118 games for the Rays that season, he hit .249 with 19 homers and 49 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 146. However, he did not appear in the postseason as the Rays were swept in two games by the Texas Rangers in the Wild Card Series.

On January 5, 2024 he was traded to the Seattle Mariners in return for IF José Caballero; the Rays actually made a couple of trades that day, also acquiring OF Richie Palacios in a separate deal, likely to fill the spot opened up by Raley's departure.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Jake Baer: "Rays' Luke Raley and Giants' Oracle Park combine for one of MLB's oddest inside-the-park HRs", Yahoo! Sports, August 16, 2023. [1]
  • Paul Casella: "'I got out of the pool ... and I had already been traded'", mlb.com, January 9, 2024. [2]
  • Sonja Chen: "'Squirrels and cats' carom gives Raley standup inside-the-park HR", mlb.com, August 16, 2023. [3]

Related Sites[edit]

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