Tyler Glasnow once again dealt with injuries and was limited to 18 starts in the regular season, but he showed the Dodgers how effective he can be when healthy in the postseason.
Glasnow was selected to
his first All-Star game in his first season with the Dodgers last year, but right elbow tendinitis forced him to miss the Dodgers’ championship run. That injury didn’t linger into the start of the regular season this year, and he started the year on a strong note by securing a win by striking out eight over five shutout innings against the Atlanta Braves.
Glasnow struggled mightily in his subsequent outing against the Philadelphia Phillies, allowing five earned runs and five walks in just two innings. Glasnow dealt with leg cramps two starts later, forcing him to exit early after four innings pitched. He got through just one inning in his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Apr. 27, but he was an early exit again, this time with right shoulder discomfort. He was placed on the 15-day injured list the following day due to right shoulder inflammation, and he would be inactive for the next two months.
Glasnow began his rehab assignment on June 22 for the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets, and in three starts, he was battered to the tune of an 8.31 ERA over 8 2/3 innings, striking out 12 and walking five. He returned to the big league rotation on July 9 during their three game series in Milwaukee, and throughout the rest of the way in the regular season, he displayed positive results but ultimately struggled with his command.
Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were two of 12 qualified pitchers to average over 10 strikeouts per nine innings from July 9 until the end of the regular season, yet Glasnow also had the third worst walks per nine innings in baseball over that span at 3.98, trailing only Robbie Ray and Lucas Giolito at 4.02 and 4 respectively.
It was an experimental season in terms of Glasnow’s pitch arsenal in 2025. From his debut in 2016 through the 2024 season, Glasnow had a mean fastball usage at 54.3 percent, although the last two seasons saw his fastball rate drop to 43.6 and 45.2. 2025 marked the first year since 2017 where his fastball usage was under 40 percent, and his secondary pitcher being his slider averaged a career low 22.1 usage rate. A noticeable change was the revival of his sinker, which became a predominant pitch only in 2017 and was essentially extinct from 2018-23. Since becoming a Dodger, his sinker rate has risen from 8.1 percent to 20.6 percent.
As a result of these changes made to his arsenal, his command suffered a brutal hit from last year, with his chase percentage falling from 27.3 percent to 22.1 percent (ranks in the first percentile) and his walk rate spike from 6.7 percent all the way up to 11.7 percent (ranks in the seventh percentile).
The Dodgers had previously seen what Glasnow could do in the postseason when they faced the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 World Series. This time around the Dodgers needed Glasnow to reverse his misfortunes he endured five years prior.
After coming out of the bullpen in his first playoff appearance as a Dodger, Glasnow’s first postseason start of 2025 came in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Phillies, where he shined through six shutout innings while striking out eight. Glasnow was the only Dodger starter to not record a quality start in the four game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, and in his final postseason start, he coughed up a two run lead against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series.
With the Dodgers’ backs against the wall and facing elimination in both Games 6 and 7, Dave Roberts decided to throw all his chips in, meaning every starting pitcher was going to be counted on should the Dodgers survive. After Roki Sasaki couldn’t finish the job in Game 6, Glasnow was called upon to keep the lead intact with the go-ahead run at the plate and men on the corners. He needed just one pitch to get a weak fly ball out from Ernie Clement, and needed just two pitches to get Andrés Giménez to line into a game-ending double play to secure his first career save and force a Game 7. He was once again relied on in Game 7, as he replaced Shohei Ohtani out of the bullpen, allowing the final run that the Blue Jays would score for the rest of the series and the season.
2025 particulars
Age: 31
Stats: 4-3, 3.19 ERA, 1.096 WHIP, 3.75 FIP, 106 K, 43 BB, 90 1/3 IP, 18 GS, 130 ERA+, 1.9 rWAR, 1.6 fWAR
Postseason: 1.69 ERA, 25 K, 11 BB, 21 1/3 IP, 1 SV
Salary: $30,000,000
Game of the year
Two days after Yoshinobu Yamamoto came one out shy of a no-hitter, Tyler Glasnow made his own bid against the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 8, tossing seven no-hit innings while striking out 11 and walking two in a 3-1 victory. It marked the first win Glasnow secured since his very first start of the season, ending a five month long winless drought.
Roster status
Glasnow is entering the third year of a five year, $136.5625 million extension that he signed with the Dodgers in Dec. 2023, and he will earn $30 million in 2026.
