Grafton, WI – This past weekend, former Chinook Luke Raley, made his debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers becoming the ninth alum to make it to the MLB.
Luke Raley played collegiate baseball at Lake Erie College. In the summer of 2015, Raley made his debut with the Lakeshore Chinooks. His summer campaign would result in earning the team’s most valuable player award. He played in 67 games ending with a .314 batting average with 14 home runs and 55 runs batted in. His most impressive outing of the summer came on July 4th in Kalamazoo where he hit four home runs in one game.
In 2016 he would go on to be drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 7th round of the MLB Draft. He would start his minor career with the Dodgers rookie ball team in the Arizona League. He was quickly promoted to the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League. After an impressive start there, Raley was once again promoted, this time to the Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League. After an impressive 2017 campaign with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, a High-A affiliate of the Dodgers, Raley began 2018 with a promotion to AA with the Tulsa Drillers. In July of that year, Raley would be traded to the Minnesota Twins where he would remain in AA ball.
Due to an ankle injury, Luke would spend more of the 2019 season on the injured list. Following a clean bill of health, Raley would advance to the Rochester Red Wings, AAA affiliate of the Twins. Shortly before the 2020 season (and eventually the COVID-19 pandemic), Luke was traded back to the Dodgers.
He began this season at the Dodgers alternate training site before being called up to Major League Baseball on Friday, April 9th.
We wish our former most valuable player the best of luck in the MLB for the 2021 season and beyond.
The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 27th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, over 250 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB All-Star Jordan Zimmermann (DET). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
