Dodgers, Glasnow reach 4-year, $110M extension (2024)

By Ken Rosenthal, Fabian Ardaya and Eno Sarris

The trade between the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays for Tyler Glasnow is nearly complete, with Los Angeles agreeing to a four-year, $110 million extension with the right-hander, major-league sources said Friday.

Glasnow was set to earn $25 million in 2024, and the parties agreed to adjust next season’s pay as a $10 million signing bonus and a $15 million salary, enabling the Dodgers to make it a five-year deal for purposes of the luxury tax, per sources. The adjustment lowers the average annual value of his contract from $27.5 million to $27 million.

Glasnow’s deal also includes a $30 million club option for an additional year, and if declined, he can exercise a $20 million player option, sources said.

The Dodgers bolsteredtheir 2024 starting rotation Thursday, agreeing to acquire Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margo in a four-player trade with the Rays. Los Angeles sent right-handed pitcher Ryan Pepiot and outfielder Jonny Deluca to Tampa Bay, major-league sources said. The trade was contingent on the Dodgers signing Glasnow to an extension and pending a physical.

Glasnow, 30, has never made more than 21 starts or pitched more than 120 innings in a major-league season. But he set both of those high marks in 2023 when he pitched to a 3.53 ERA and struck out 162 hitters. He will be a free agent after the 2024 season.

Margot, 29, hit .264/.310/.376 with four home runs, 38 RBIs and nine stolen bases in 99 games last season. He spent four seasons in Tampa Bay after playing the first four of his career with the San Diego Padres.

Pepiot and Deluca entered 2023 as the Dodgers’ Nos. 13 and 19 prospects, according toThe Athletic’s Keith Law, and both spent time in the majors last season. Pepiot, 26, had a 2.14 ERA in 42 innings (eight games, three starts), striking out 38 and walking five. Deluca, 25, was 11-for-42 (.262) at the plate with two home runs. He hit 17 homers and stole 12 bases in 73 games in Double A and Triple A combined.

The move comes less than a week after the Dodgers signed Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract. Ohtani, the two-time American League MVP, will hit but not pitch in 2024 as he recovers from a September operation to repair his right elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament.

Why the Dodgers made this move

Adding pitching always seemed like the next move for the Dodgers after signing Ohtani, especially after seeing the unprecedented structure of Ohtani’s contract aimed at continuing to push the pedal down. They met with free-agent starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday in Los Angeles and remain in the mix there, and now add a potential top-end starter in Glasnow, who had emerged as the Dodgers’ top trade target over the last week.

That rotation likely remains an area of need even after this move, especially with the inclusion of Pepiot as part of the package. But Glasnow always loomed as the logical next domino. —Fabian Ardaya, Dodgers staff writer

Los Angeles’ projected rotation as of now

1. Walker Buehler (who might have a delayed start to the season)
2. Tyler Glasnow
3. Bobby Miller
4. Ryan Yarbrough
5. Emmet Sheehan

Glasnow vs. Pepiot

Pepiot is an exciting young arm. He averaged 94 mph on a four-seam fastball with a good ride, showed off his plus plus changeup with tremendous movement and harnessed a decent hard breaking ball that batters only hit .233 off of last year in a limited sample.

Glasnow gets hurt. Last year he threw the most innings he’d ever thrown in the big leagues, and that was only 120. Even taking 2020 and his Tommy John year out, he’s averaged around 80 innings a season.

There will be people that don’t like this deal.

But Pepiot’s command has been shaky, so even with his strides in that department, the Dodgers might have been nervous depending on him all season in the rotation, even beyond the fact that he doesn’t have much major-league experience.

And Glasnow’s stuff is just better. You don’t need Stuff+ — which had Glasnow seventh in the big leagues among starters with 100-plus innings last season — to know that he’s nasty. He averaged 96.5 mph on a four-seamer with cut last year, perfected his 90 mph slider and still had that 84 mph curve with plus plus drop.

When you have some pitching depth and need an ace, this is the kind of dice roll you throw. —Eno Sarris, MLB senior writer

Required reading

• Glasnow was dealt. Is Burnes next? 7 MLB trade targets to watch the rest of this winter
• Rosenthal: What I’m hearing about Dylan Cease and the starting pitcher market
• MLB trade grades: Taking stock of the Dodgers-Rays Tyler Glasnow deal

(Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)