New York Mets Star Reliever to Get Second Opinion on Injured Elbow

Brooks Raley is headed to meet with one of baseball’s foremost surgeons to find out if he needs season-ending surgery or not.

Mar 31, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Brooks Raley. / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

New York Mets starting pitcher Brooks Raley is on his way to Texas to get a second opinion on his injured elbow, reported MLB.com.

Raley will get his latest medical opinion from Dr. Keith Meister, one of sports medicine’s foremost surgeons when it comes to Tommy John and internal brace surgery. He is also the Texas Rangers’ team surgeon and operated on former Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom last year.

Raley will be in Texas on Tuesday.

Raley told reporters that he has bone spurs and some ligament damage in his left elbow. He was specific about the diagnosis, saying “I don’t know all the terminology.”  

The left-hander went on the Mets’ 15-day injured list on April 21 with left elbow inflammation. Before that, he was 1-0 with no ERA in eight appearances out of the bullpen for the Mets. He struck out nine and walked three in eight innings.

The 35-year-old expressed hope that he wouldn’t need surgery. Given that Raley admits there is ligament damage, surgery is certainly a possibility. If so, he said it would probably be either Tommy John or an internal brace surgery, the latter a surgery that Dr. Meister specializes in.

If he needs either surgery, he’ll miss the rest of the season and enter free agency looking for a landing spot that acknowledges he’ll need part of 2025 to recover.

Raley was with the Mets in 2023, where he went 1-2 with a 2.80 ERA in a career-high 66 appearances. He had 25 holds and three saves. He also struck out 61 and walked 25 in 51.2 innings.

The Texas native has been in the Majors since 2012 and has pitched for the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Houston Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays. His time in the Majors was interrupted by a five-year stint with the KBO’s Lotte Giants.