Orioles' Nick Raquet traded in finance career for MLB dream: 'Life is crazy'

Matt Weyrich, Baltimore Sun on Apr 8, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — Four years ago, Nick Raquet was working behind a desk.

The Orioles’ new left-handed reliever, acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in a trade on Tuesday, flamed out of professional baseball after a rough showing at High-A in 2019 and entered the working world. He took a job in finance at the account firm Ernst & Young in Washington and moved in with some college friends, moving on from the game.

Only, Raquet never truly did move on. It didn’t take long before he started throwing again, whether it was against a net or whenever he could convince one of his roommates to play catch with him after work. He then reached out to some old connections from the Washington Nationals, the team that picked him in the third round of the 2017 MLB draft, and they helped him develop a program to build up his arm into playing shape.

“Just wanted to get back into baseball,” Raquet said. “Knowing that [a finance career] was always going to be there, and knowing that baseball probably isn’t always going to be there, knock on wood, but it was just a little bit of a passion to go out there again and just see what I could do and whether we got here or not, it was going back and doing something that I believed in.”

Raquet made his official comeback in the independent Atlantic League, posting a 3.71 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 24 starts with the York Revolution in 2023. He then pitched in the Dominican Winter League before the St. Louis Cardinals signed him to a minor league deal. In the two seasons since, Raquet dominated at Double-A but struggled to translate that success in Triple-A. He made his MLB debut last September and turned in a pair of scoreless relief appearances.

Now, the 30-year-old rookie is getting his second MLB opportunity with Baltimore — a city he has ties to, having pitched for the Baltimore Redbirds of the Cal Ripken Collegiate League in 2015.

“I think just understanding there are bigger things out there,” Raquet said of the perspective he gained from being out of baseball for three years. “It’s more than just the game. Life is crazy, and I think it teaches you a ton of lessons, and I think it’s a lot of things that I can take from [my time away] and those experiences and bring it to baseball and realize that sometimes things aren’t that serious. And although there’s a lot that goes into this game and a lot of blood, sweat and tears, that perspective is a really important thing when you want to look back and reflect.”

With several injuries in the Orioles’ bullpen, Raquet will have a chance to show what he can do for the Orioles. He described himself as a sinker-ball pitcher who throws “a lot of spin” between his sweeper and slider. The club got a look at him last week when he pitched against the Orioles’ Triple-A Norfolk affiliate, and he pitched two scoreless innings. Though he arrived with a black eye, stitches around his eye socket and staples in his head from a weight room accident last week, Raquet is healthy enough to pitch, and the Orioles are hopeful he can make an impact.

Manager Craig Albernaz said Tuesday that one of the Cardinals’ assistant general managers reached out to give the Orioles some intel on him.

“You can never have enough left-handed pitching, especially relievers,” Albernaz said. “Love the strike-throwing ability he has shown, and also it is an area that focus for him. But the ability to spin the baseball is the biggest thing and so the biggest thing for us right now is to get him activated. He hasn’t thrown in a little bit, so we want to make sure that he gets outside, plays catch, touches the mound, and we’ll kind of go from there.”