Rays agree to trade Tyler Glasnow to Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays are in agreement on a trade to send frontline starter Tyler Glasnow to the Dodgers, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN on Thursday. The deal is contingent on Glasnow signing a contract extension with Los Angeles, which the parties are hopeful will happen by Friday, according to sources.

The window for the extension opened Thursday morning, sources said, and if completed, the Dodgers will get Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot and send right-handed starter Ryan Pepiot and outfield prospect Jonny Deluca to the Rays.

One of the prized starting pitchers on the trade market, Glasnow is among the game’s most dominant — and if not for injuries would be regarded as one of the best starters in baseball. In a career-high 120 innings this year, the hard-throwing right-hander struck out 162 and walked just 37, going 10-7 with a 3.53 ERA. Should the deal go through, Los Angeles would add a front-of-the-rotation arm just days after signing Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract, with the vast majority of the money deferred.

Some of the freed-up cash flow can go to Glasnow, a Southern California native who is set to make $25 million this season and could wind up with an extension that takes him into his mid-30s and exceeds nine figures. Right now, only Ohtani and fellow stars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are signed by the Dodgers beyond 2025.

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Tampa Bay explored trading Glasnow, 30, from the early part of the offseason, and while the Rays considered keeping him even at a $25 million salary they awarded him as part of a contract extension in August 2022, the value in the trade market progressed to the point that they dealt away their expected Opening Day starter.

Pepiot, 26, was expected to be part of the Dodgers rotation.

In parts of two seasons with the Dodgers, he has thrived, posting a 2.76 ERA shuttling between the rotation and the bullpen. Pepiot was particularly sterling in 2023, with a 2.14 ERA and 38-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 42 innings, with his lone blemish seven home runs permitted. He enters the season with just one year of service time, giving Tampa Bay five years of control before he reaches free agency.

Deluca, 25, made his big league debut this year after consistently crushing minor league pitching over four seasons after the Dodgers took him in the 25th round of the draft out of Oregon. Capable of playing all three outfield positions, Deluca hit .271/.357/.526 in the minor leagues with strong walk and strikeout rates.

Accompanying Glasnow is the 29-year-old Margot, a highly regarded defender who will make $10 million this season and joins a Dodgers outfield that currently features James Outman, Chris Taylor and Jason Heyward. Betts is expected to move to second base full-time, leaving potential at-bats for Margot versus left-handed pitchers, where his career OPS is nearly 100 points higher than against righties.

Glasnow had been with the Rays since 2018, when they acquired him, outfielder Austin Meadows and top prospect Shane Baz for right-hander Chris Archer. In his six seasons with the Rays, the 6-foot-8 Glasnow — whose high-90s fastball, low-90s slider and big-breaking curveball led to him striking out more than a third of hitters he faced in 2023 — went 27-16 with a 3.20 ERA over 388⅓ innings.

A variety of injuries have limited Glasnow. After 14 starts laced with dominance in 2021, he underwent Tommy John surgery. Glasnow returned for a pair of starts in 2022 and pitched in 21 games in 2023, increasing his career strikeout rate to 11.5 per nine innings, the second-highest mark among pitchers who have started at least two-thirds of their games and thrown 500-plus innings.

Other trade candidates include Chicago White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, who’s expected to be dealt in the coming weeks; Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes, who has been considered in trade discussions with no momentum toward a deal; and Cleveland’s Shane Bieber, who, like Glasnow and Burnes, is due to hit free agency after this season.

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