Ryan Pepiot Was Dining With Dodgers Teammates When He Learned He Was Traded to
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Shortly after officially introducing Shohei Ohtani as a member of the Dodgers, it was reported that L.A. was nearing a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays for right-handed pitcher Tyler Glasnow. The full trade ended up bringing Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot to Los Angeles, while right-handed pitcher Ryan Pepiot and outfielder Jonny DeLuca went to Tampa.
The trade — which was initially reported on Dec. 12 — was agreed upon on Dec. 14 (the day of the Ohtani presser) and finalized the next day after Glasnow agreed to a contract extension.
It’s always interesting to hear the perspective from players when a trade like this goes down, and recently, Pepiot caught up with MLB Network Radio and spoke about the deal.
He said he was at a Mexican restaurant in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona with a bunch of his now former teammates when the trade was finalized.
“Me, James Outman, Yency Almonte, Alex Vesia, Justin Bruihl, a few other guys that I’ve played with the past few years. And we were all there with our wives and girlfriends and stuff. It was a fun little night.”
Then, after days of waiting for the official word, he got the call that he was being traded to Tampa Bay.
“But it was immediately sit down — I was waiting for the call all day, that Friday — sit down for dinner, everybody gets our drinks, sit down and immediately phone rings,” Pepiot said. “I’m hopping in an out of phone calls. But it was an exciting night.”
Fortunately, it didn’t come as a shock to Pepiot, as he said the Dodgers organization kept him in the loop as the deal was being discussed over the previous days.
“Kind of knew it was happening,” Pepiot said. “The Dodgers had kept me in the loop for the past couple days prior to that saying, ‘still working out some final details but looking likely.’”
The deal seems like a win-win, as the Dodgers got a true ace-level pitcher in Glasnow, and the Rays got younger and saved money with the additions of Pepiot and DeLuca.
Pepiot and DeLuca should get opportunities for bigger roles in Tampa, and it sounds like Pepiot is excited for the next step of his career.
Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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