Pepiot's goal for 2024: 'Just keep going'

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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- This time last year, Ryan Pepiot was ready to prove himself. He was on his way to claiming a spot in the Dodgers’ rotation, with a chance to solidify his standing after an uneven 2022 debut, only to suffer a left oblique strain in his final Spring Training start two days before Opening Day.

The right-hander made it back for eight appearances down the stretch, then he found himself sitting in the bullpen at Chase Field, a pile of sunflower seeds around his feet, having never touched the mound when the Dodgers’ season came to a stunning end against the D-backs in the National League Division Series. He wasn’t expecting what came next, either.

Pepiot said he was sitting on the couch, watching a show on Bravo with his wife, Lilia, when his phone started blowing up with rumors of a trade between the Rays and the Dodgers. The deal would send Pepiot and outfielder Jonny DeLuca to Tampa Bay for ace Tyler Glasnow and veteran outfielder Manuel Margot. He turned to Lilia and said, “I think we just got traded.”

After days of incremental, slow-developing news, he woke up the morning of Dec. 15 and drove from his nearby home to work out at the Dodgers’ Spring Training complex in Arizona, like usual. When he left, he cleared his workout gear out of his locker and tossed it in the bed of his truck.

“If I come back Monday,” he thought, “it’s there.”

He wouldn’t come back. After waiting all day for the call, it finally came when he sat down for dinner with friends, just as their drinks were being served. The deal was done, and Pepiot was going to be a Ray.

Now, one year and one team later, his mindset hasn’t changed.

“I was ready last year for it,” Pepiot said shortly after reporting to Spring Training, “and even more ready now.”

Pepiot will make his first appearance in a Rays uniform against the Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon at TD Ballpark in Dunedin. The 26-year-old former Top 100 prospect still has something to prove.

“Doing it here with a new team, just proving to the guys that I can help the team and going out there and taking the ball every fifth or sixth day … just keeping the team in games to win, that’s very important to me,” he said.

Undrafted out of high school, then the highest pick in Butler University history when he went to the Dodgers in the third round of the 2019 MLB Draft, Pepiot made his big league debut on May 11, 2022. He pitched nine times for the Dodgers that year, recording a 3.47 ERA despite an alarming spike in his walk rate.

Pepiot had spent much of his offseason working on a sweeper that, ideally, would have complemented his mid-90s fastball and bread-and-butter changeup. But it messed up his arm slot and wreaked havoc on everything else; his changeup wasn’t right, his fastball ran too much, and his command suffered.

He still learned from the experience.

“I had a little bit of success even walking a ton of people, but [it helped] just knowing that some of my stuff played when it was in the zone,” Pepiot said. “So now it was just, ‘All right, how can I get in the zone more and just let it play and try to get guys out as fast as I can?’”

Ideally, Pepiot would have used that as a springboard to an expanded role last year. He prepared accordingly, tightening up his slider and renewing his focus on attacking the strike zone. It didn’t work out that way, but the Rays liked what they saw in his brief showing.

After the trade, he said, their message was simple.

“Keep it going,” Pepiot said. “It was just like, ‘Hey, whatever you did last year, just keep doing it.’”

Looking to build relationships with his new team in person, Pepiot and Lilia traveled to St. Petersburg in mid-January. He spent the next month working out at Tropicana Field before reporting to Spring Training. The early returns, in bullpens and live batting practice sessions, have been impressive.

“Awesome,” pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. “Just a really, really good three-pitch mix. Commands the ball very well now. And I’m excited to get a chance to work with him.”

After watching Pepiot face teammates like Randy Arozarena and Jose Siri in a recent live BP on the backfields of Charlotte Sports Park, manager Kevin Cash said his performance was the highlight of the day’s workout. And perhaps more than that.

“Maybe the trade made a little more sense to them after watching that,” Cash said, grinning.

Pepiot knows he can’t be Glasnow -- even though the trade will spark plenty of comparisons. He’s not trying to be Glasnow. He’s setting out to prove himself, just as he was a year ago.

“I know Glas was a great guy. Everyone loved him. He was a fan favorite. It’s tough shoes to fill,” Pepiot said. “But just the opportunity to be here with the team, everyone’s been great so far. … It’s been a great transition. Couldn’t ask for anything more.”