Within the span of simply eight months, a lot had seemingly modified.
Final August, the Dodgers weren’t but defending champions, greater than two months out from their unlikely run to a World Collection title. Veteran pitcher Tyler Glasnow, in the meantime, was within the midst of one in all his finest seasons, not but sidelined by the elbow damage that might finish his marketing campaign early and rule him out of the playoffs.
Again then, Glasnow was nonetheless assured in his well being, believing his career-long elbow issues have been lastly behind him. He was nonetheless assured of his skills, even whereas battling a chronic second-half hunch. He was nonetheless seen as probably the most reliable identify within the crew’s beginning pitching rotation, too, the potential lacking piece of their pursuit of a championship.
As an alternative, after all, Glasnow grew to become one of many greatest items the Dodgers wound up lacking final October, after getting shut down in mid-August with elbow tendinitis. His absence from the mound was among the many most daunting obstacles of the crew’s postseason, leaving an already shorthanded pitching employees in an (virtually) unattainable spot.
That’s why, although the Dodgers received the World Collection, incomes Glasnow his first world championship ring, the 31-year-old right-hander launched into one thing of a reinvention this offseason — altering the whole lot from his throwing program, to his pitching grips, to his psychological method earlier than and through begins.
“I feel really comfortable with what I worked on,” he mentioned. “I’ve kind of changed a ton of stuff.”
And on Monday evening, in his return to a big-league mound eight months after his 2024 season ended prematurely, all of it culminated in an auspicious begin to his 2025 — as Glasnow pitched 5 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and solely two hits allowed throughout the Dodgers’ 6-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game. We’re fortunate to have him,” catcher Will Smith mentioned afterward. “When he needed to make a pitch, he executed it.”
Glasnow was in classic private type in his season debut, holding the Braves and not using a hit till the fifth inning.
He attacked the strike zone with a heavy fastball, touching 98 mph on the radar gun. He snapped off a flurry of swing-and-miss curveballs and sliders, inducing 13 whiffs on only a 79-pitch evening. Most essential, he built-in the myriad of modifications he made this offseason — from alterations in his throwing program, to tweaks on his pitch grips, to a extra “external” mindset he desires to keep up throughout begins — and supplied a promising preliminary preview of what he hopes is to return over the subsequent six months.
“He was just kind of getting hitters and staying aggressive and trusting his stuff,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned afterward. “You can see the conviction of the breaking ball today. There’s a lot of bad swings with that pitch. And then the fastball played. So, yeah, I think tonight was a good stepping stone going forward.”
Final 12 months, sustaining such dominance was a problem for Glasnow, particularly as he reached career-high totals in begins (22) and innings pitched (134).
After cruising by the primary half of the season with an 8-5 report and a couple of.88 ERA — serving to him earn his first profession All-Star choice — the crew’s $136.5 million offseason acquisition regarded out of sync within the weeks main as much as his elbow damage, stumbling to a 5.29 ERA over his ultimate six begins.
A part of the issue was bodily, with Glasnow lacking two weeks in July due to again tightness earlier than happening for good in mid-August with elbow tendinitis.
However Glasnow’s psychological method, each he and Dodgers coaches concurred, additionally appeared to contribute to the issue. Too usually, he acknowledged, he grew to become preoccupied along with his mechanics throughout his late-season struggles. Every time his supply felt off, he reverted to an “internal” give attention to the way in which his physique moved fairly than an “external” give attention to the execution of every throw.
“It’s like, if I’m trying to bury a slider, I need to go bury a slider — as opposed to [thinking], ‘Well, that last throw felt a little too rotational,’ and then trying to align everything correctly,” Glasnow defined final week, sounding virtually like a golfer making an attempt to not over-analyze their swing.
“As long as I can have an external focus in the zone, as opposed to thinking about all my body parts [and how they are moving], it usually goes a lot better for me,” he added.
That’s why, as soon as Glasnow returned to well being in November and commenced looking for methods to enhance in 2025, Dodgers pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness offered a variety of concepts, suggesting modifications to the whole lot from his throwing program to his coaching strategies to his in-game thought course of.
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow reacts after putting out the Braves’ Austin Riley within the fifth inning.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
“I think we all know that he leans toward the mechanical side,” Roberts mentioned. “But we’re trying to free him up more. And to his credit, he’s bought into that.”
One prime instance: Glasnow has reduce drills involving weighted and plyometric balls out of his coaching routine, choosing a extra conventional long-toss program to construct energy in his arm and fluidity in his throwing movement.
“I used to just throw a bunch of weighted balls,” Glasnow mentioned Monday, one thing he believes helped enhance his pitching velocities but additionally coincided with when his elbow began “not feeling great.”
Now, nonetheless, he’s stretching his long-toss distances out to round 250 ft, greater than double what he used to. And already, it’s serving to him create a extra environment friendly and repeatable throw, one during which extra energy is being generated from his legs and easily flowing by the remainder of his physique.
“I’ve just been able to transfer my energy a lot smoother, [where] it’s not so stiff and inconsistent,” he mentioned. “It just seems like I can use a lot less effort and get the same stuff.”
Glasnow cited related results from modifications he made within the weight room underneath the steering of athletic growth coordinator Eric Yavarone, saying his “body just feels a lot better” and is “moving more fluid.”
He additionally famous a collection of pitch grip tweaks he has labored on with McGuiness — particularly to a curveball that had gotten too “slurvy” in recent times, with an rising quantity of horizontal motion; however is again to that includes a hard-diving vertical drop that he can use to bury it within the grime.
“I think having that curveball has helped me out,” Glasnow mentioned. “I think all of it has kind of come together.”
There are nonetheless kinks to work out within the course of, stretches the place Glasnow’s outdated bothersome emotions will inevitably nonetheless come up.
On Monday evening, it occurred within the prime of the second inning, when Glasnow briefly misplaced his rhythm and walked consecutive batters to start the body.
“I don’t know why, but I just felt out of sync,” he mentioned.
However along with his refined mechanics and externally-focused mindset, he instantly settled again down, retired his subsequent three batters so as and went on to finish his first scoreless outing since final June 16.
“I think it’s the least I’ve thought mechanically in a long time,” he mentioned afterward. “I feel athletic and free and good.”
