Cubs Former Reliever Inks Contract with American League Contender

The Chicago Cubs have seen a piece of their bullpen from the 2025 season depart for a new team.

As first reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive, veteran right-hander Ryan Brasier is signing with the Texas Rangers on a minor league deal which contains an invite to spring training, where he will compete for a spot on the big league roster.

Brasier came to Chicago around this time last year via a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers after he was designated for assignment and was expected to be a significant part of the bullpen. Instead, though, he dealt with injuries and was limited to just 26 innings throughout the year, not putting up strong numbers in that small sample size.

Brasier struggled in lone season with Cubs

Ryan Brasier of Chicago Cubs throws ball from right hand — Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Brasier | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Over 28 appearances, the surface numbers on Brasier weren't horrible with a 4.50 ERA and 1.231 WHIP, but a 3.17 FIP and strikeout rate that plummeted to the lowest of his career made him largely ineffective.

The 38-year-old accounted for a -0.2 bWAR during his tenure in the Windy City and ultimately was not even on the playoff roster. Given the fact that Chicago acquired him on a very low-risk cash trade, it's not exactly devastating that things didn't work out, but there was some excitement after the deal.

Instead, the Texas native returns to his home state to try to start his MLB career over fresh.

Cubs bullpen likely did not have apot for Brasier

Ryan Brasier of Chicago Cubs throws pitch from right han — Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Brasier | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Ironically, Chicago has gone to the Rangers well a couple of times this winter to build the bullpen with guys like Jacob Webb and Hoby Milner. However, with all of the additions they have made there, a veteran Brasier likely was going to be squeezed out of a spot.

The Cubs had all offseason to try to bring Brasier back and chose not to, which seems fairly telling that they did not have a whole lot of interest in keeping him around.

The bullpen is one area where Jed Hoyer has led a ton of shakeup this winter, adding Webb and Milner along with Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey and others to go along with retaining key pieces from the 2025 unit like Caleb Thielbar and Daniel Palencia, it's shaping up to be a potential strength.

Fans in Chicago will wish Brasier well moving forward, but letting him walk away will prove to have been the right call.

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