New Phillies relievers Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian happy to contribute to a team that’s ‘gunning for it’
Raley, who has plenty of experience playing against the Phillies, is excited to join them. Kilian hopes to continue his breakout season with his new team.
In an era of baseball where high velocity is prized — especially when it comes to relievers — Brooks Raley is a throwback.
The 38-year-old reliever, whom the Phillies acquired from divisional rival New York Mets at the trade deadline on Tuesday, has an average fastball velocity of 90.1 mph. It’s the lowest velocity of any reliever in the Phillies bullpen, a group that has Jhoan Duran at 100.3 mph at the high end.
But it works for him. Raley has sustained a 1.96 ERA in 41⅓ innings this year because he mixes and commands his pitches well. He throws his sweeper 37.8% of the time, with a cutter, sinker, and changeup rounding out his arsenal.
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“Definitely the trend in the sport,” Raley said. “I think hitters will always tell you soft contact, limit damage, throwing strikes, I do a lot of those things well, and sometimes you just gotta attack the weaknesses of the player, and I think I’m pretty good at that.”
The Phillies’ lefties have seen it firsthand. Kyle Schwarber is 0-for-10 in his career against Raley with four strikeouts. Bryce Harper is 2-for-9 with five strikeouts. Brandon Marsh is 0-for-7 with six strikeouts.
“Playing against these guys a lot, pretty familiar with the lineup, and excited to join them for a little while at least,” Raley said. “Really good staff, really good pitching staff, and just any way to contribute.”
It cost the Phillies two prospects — outfielder John Spikerman and right-hander Luke Gabrysh — to acquire Raley, a pending free agent. But he brings consistency to the left-handed side of the bullpen that has struggled this season.
“He’s a back-end guy,” Mattingly said. “It gives us another quality arm, gives us options. I’ve talked a little bit about that sixth inning, where we have trouble getting back to the back-end guys. So this just gives us more options.”
Raley was already familiar with Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham. They coincided with the Reds in 2020, where Cotham was director of pitching at the time.
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“I enjoyed having him as a coach. And I thought he was kind of on the front end of what baseball is kind of evolving to, so I’m excited to work with that,” Raley said.
He’s not the only new relief addition. Caleb Kilian, a 29-year-old righty, was acquired from the Giants along with second baseman Luis Arraez on Monday in exchange for a pair of prospects. Kilian is under team control through 2031.
“I feel like I’m surrounded by a bunch of veterans,” Kilian said. “It’s really cool to be on a team that’s gunning for it right now.”
Kilian debuted in the majors in 2022, but this year marks the first time he has seized a regular role in the big leagues after transitioning to the bullpen. He woke up on Monday to his wife telling him he had been traded, and spent the rest of the day on the phone, navigating the sudden life change.
“I’ve learned a bunch this year. So I’ve just been growing and kind of taking it one game at a time,” Kilian said.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski compared the acquisition of Kilian to their trade for Jonathan Bowlan over the offseason. In December, the Phillies sent left-handed reliever Matt Strahm to the Royals in exchange for the right-handed Bowlan, who had bounced between the minors and majors for much of 2025.
» READ MORE: Dave Dombrowski’s no good, very bad year (tenure?) continues at the MLB trade deadline
The deal aged well for the Phillies. Bowlan became one of the most trusted arms in the bullpen, with a 3.03 ERA, while Strahm was designated for assignment by the Royals on Tuesday.
“Somebody that we really like his arm, and think we can do some things with him,” Dombrowski said of Kilian.
Kilian has higher velocity, and in addition to his 96 mph four-seam fastball, he also throws a knuckle curve, slider, and sinker.
His 4.17 ERA is somewhat inflated by two blowups earlier this year. He allowed five runs in ⅔ of an inning in Colorado, and four runs in ⅔ of an inning against the Athletics, which padded his numbers. But Kilian has not allowed an earned run in his last six appearances, including a scoreless ninth inning Tuesday in his Phillies debut.
He punctuated his outing with consecutive called strikeouts to end the Phillies’ 5-0 win.
Extra bases
Luis Arraez was back at the cleanup spot on Wednesday. ... Cristopher Sánchez (14-4, 2.61 ERA) is scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale against Nationals right-hander Miles Mikolas (3-8, 5.67 ERA).
No matter what moves the Phillies make before the trade deadline Monday, they will have to fix some of their issues internally. Chief among them: Trea Turner's defense at shortstop. And that's where infield coach Bobby Dickerson comes in. Dickerson sat down with "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss Turner's struggles, the problems with analytics in measuring defense, his unique coaching style, and more. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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