Trade details

The Los Angeles Dodgers acquire RHP Tyler Glasnow and OF Manuel Margot from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for OF Jonny Deluca and RHP Ryan Pepiot

On the same day when they introduced Shohei Ohtani as a Dodger, the team swung a big trade, agreeing to a deal that would add right-hander Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot from the Rays in exchange for two young players, right-hander Ryan Pepiot and outfielder Jonny Deluca, who haven’t even reached arbitration and have five and six years of team control left, respectively.

Glasnow is one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy, which he has not been for any significant length of time in his major-league career. He struck out a third of batters he faced in 2023 after his return from Tommy John surgery, and his 2.91 FIP would have ranked second in the AL if he’d qualified, between league-leader Sonny Gray and Kevin Gausman.
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Manuel Margot, on the other hand, is a high-contact hitter with very little power whose value largely came from his plus defense anywhere in the outfield, but since a knee injury in 2022, that defensive value hasn’t been on display. From 2017-21, he was at 9-12 Runs Above Average (per Statcast) in every full season, but dropped to minus-1 in 2022 and 1 this past season. He’s definitely lost a step or two, a decline that was already in progress even before the knee injury, so I’m not that sanguine that he’s going to bounce all the way back on defense.
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I mentioned in my write-up of the Shohei Ohtani/Decoy contract that Ryan Pepiot “was outstanding in five September starts, throwing more strikes than he ever has in pro ball, although four were against some of the lowest-scoring offenses in baseball.” …

Jonny Deluca, no relation to NWH manager Whitey, was a 25th-round pick out of Oregon in 2019, debuted last year at age 24 and showed plus speed and reasonable pitch recognition for a rookie, albeit with less power than he’d shown in the low minors.
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