2024 review: Tyler Glasnow

The newly acquired and extended right-hander was one of the best pitchers in baseball for the Dodgers, pitching a career-high in innings, which is great until you remember Glasnow missed the most important third of the year.

On December 14, 2023, the Dodgers acquired Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot for farmhands Jonny DeLuca and Ryan Pepiot. The deal was contingent on the Dodgers and Glasnow agreeing to a contract extension.

On December 18, 2023, the Dodgers announced that the team had agreed with Glasnow on a five-year, $136.5625 million contract. Glasnow already had a $25 million contract for 2024, so the Dodgers bought up the prime years of Glasnow’s career.

In essence, the Dodgers had written up a Hollywood coming-home story about a local boy pitching for his hometown, now wearing number 31. While Glasnow’s stuff is among the best in the league, the main blight on his career has been his inability to pitch for an entire season, with Glasnow only topping 100 innings twice in his career to start 2024.

While Glasnow was solid, if unspectacular, to start his Dodger career for his first three starts, including the Seoul Series, he was nothing short of masterful in seven shutout, three-hit innings against the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis. Glasnow bullied the Twins that night with 14 strikeouts, tying a career-high, in just 88 pitches.

Glasnow was the only pitcher to strike out 14 or more batters in fewer than 90 pitches, as pitch counts became official in 1988. Moreover, Glasnow’s dominance had him join an elite group of Dodger pitchers to record 14 or more strikeouts and no walks in a single outing, which had not been accomplished since Walker Buehler’s effort in August 2019.

After a setback against the Washington Nationals, Glasnow went on a tear, which was poetry in motion. He rolled off four starts in a row of at least six innings and nine strikeouts. The gem of these starts was on April 21 against the New York Mets, where Glasnow went eight shutout innings and struck out ten.

Glasnow’s effectiveness ebbed and flowed; generally, he was dealing. Primarily using his 4-seam fastball, slider, and curveball, when Glasnow did give up contact, it tended to be hard, giving up the most home runs of his career since 2018 — a career-high.

• March/April: 7 starts, 5-1, 2.72 ERA, 2.75 FIP, 43 IP, 53 K, 4 HR allowed, .181/.240/.316
• May: 5 starts, 1-2, 3.48 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 31 IP, 42 K, 3 HR allowed, .165/.229/.312
• June: 5 starts, 2-2, 3.72 ERA, 2.75 FIP, 29 IP, 41 K, 4 HR allowed, .215/.254/.393

Before discussing the rather large elephant in the room about Glasnow, it is worth pointing out that he is very aware that he is a dead-ringer for famed Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy. The two have not met; moreover, Murphy is also aware of Glasnow. How the Dodgers have not monetized this quirk of fate yet is beyond me.

Glasnow pitched well enough to be named to his first All-Star team, joining Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Teoscar Hernández, and Shohei Ohtani. At the time, Glasnow led the majors in the percentage of struck-out batters at just over a third of the time.

Glasnow had one start in July, getting roughed up a bit by the Milwaukee Brewers in Los Angeles. At this point in the season, Glasnow had yet to miss a start, defying his injury history. Sadly, the streak ended on July 9 when Glasnow went on the injured list with a back injury.

The hope was that Glasnow would only miss one start with the impending All-Star Break. At the time of the injured list stint, Glasnow had already pitched 109, just 11 innings shy of his career high in the majors. Due to the injury, Glasnow did not pitch in the All-Star Game.

Glasnow returned on July 24, but he suffered a hard-luck loss against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium, as the bullpen imploded long after Glasnow exited the game. After the injury list stint, while Glasnow returned and pitched on regular rest, he was markedly less effective than in the first half of the season, most notably getting touched up by the New York Yankees in the Bronx.

• Late July/August: 4 starts, 1-1, 25 IP, 3.60 ERA, 3.45 FIP, 3 HR allowed, .220/.268/.407

Disaster struck on August 16, before his scheduled start in St. Louis. Glasnow suffered right elbow tendinitis, which forced Justin Wrobleski and Bobby Miller to cover the gap in the rotation.

Glasnow had thrown his last pitch of the year, even though he threw a career-high 134 innings in 2024.

Hopes that he would return to the rotation were dealt setback after setback before the September announcement that Glasnow would be shelved for the year, prompting a team meeting that ultimately changed the Dodgers’ season.

Ultimately, Glasnow would be present for the Dodgers’ World Championship run as a spectator with one of the best views in the house, tolerating the situation because the Dodgers won.

Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Glasnow’s inaugural campaign with the Dodgers is hard to describe as anything other than a qualified success. Yes, Glasnow pitched as well as advertised — in the wrong part of the season. Overall, hitters were able to hit just .190/.244/.347 against Glasnow in 2024. He was second on the team in total innings and led the team in strikeouts. He also led the Dodger starters in WHIP and trailed only Yoshinobu Yamamoto in FIP.

Thankfully, Glasnow would avoid surgery, as reporting after the World Series indicated that Glasnow would be ready to start in 2025. On December 13, Glasnow said that the scans showed no physical injuries and described his approach for the coming 2025 season and that the Dodgers have not yet spoken to him regarding trying to “save” him for October in the coming year.

An effective and healthy Glasnow would significantly reduce the difficulty of the Dodgers’ successful title defense in 2025. Whether the Dodgers actually use a six-man rotation in the coming campaign may be one key to ensuring Glasnow’s inclusion in the team’s likely postseason rotation.

2024 particulars

Age: 31

Stats: 9-6, 134 IP, 168 K, 35 BB, 3.49 ERA, 2.62 xERA, 2.90 FIP, .948 WHIP, 3.8 fWAR, 1.9 rWAR

Salary: $25 million (including the $10 million signing bonus)

Game of the year

Glasnow had a couple of true gems in 2024, but his 14-strikeout game against the Twins on April 9 is the clear winner for his game of the year, due to his dominance and efficiency.

Roster status

Glasnow is entering the second year of his five-year contract. He is set to earn $30 million.