Holidays. Yeah, we're getting closer. Rodney p Fred Rogan on a tremendous
sprint today on a Monday, love it, love the season, baby.
Come on, all right, Rodney, let's bring on the newest member of
the Dodgers, Tyler Glass. Now and Tyler, thanks for jumping on.
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. All right,
let's start with this. If my research is correct, your dad played water
pole. Well, your mom was a gymnast, your brother was a decatholice,
so whatever happened to you? Yeah, I don't know. I chose
baseball for some reasons. I did all the sports and stuff growing up,
and then first I was just good at baseball and it seemed to have like
a more of a like a good trajectory out of high school, like more
opportunities and stuff. And it was just one of the games I like fell
in love with and becad like madly obsessed with. So it ended up working
out. So, you know, coming out of high school, you were
going to go to the University of Portland, but the Pirates drafted you and
you just jumped on it, I think for six hundred grand Why did you
make the move right out of high school. So it was something I thought
about for a while, and it was like I kept going back and forth,
and I had committed to University of Portland like pretty early on, and
I remember talking to like UCLA and some other teams, but I wasn't super
great. I guess when I committed, and it was just Portland was like
a D one school and they gave me a good scholarship and I chose to
do that. In my senior year, I started throwing all hard and I
did pretty good. And I think I was just sitting in the car one
day after I got drafted, and it kind of just came to me,
like if I go play pro ball, they'd give me money and I don't
have to do homework. It was just like do that. I don't want
to have to go do school anymore. And it was just like all right,
cool. I called and then I called it a Monday, and I
flew down on a Wednesday and then started my career. That's incredible. So
when you were in Santa Clarito, where was your favorite to drive through restaurant
you'd go to. What would you do hanging out there in high school?
Oh? Man, it was probably honestly, probably like your standard like in
and out and stuff. We'd always go there before and after football games.
And then I I liked like the Del Taco was always pretty good, which
I didn't know wasn't like a national food chain, so it was once I
left, it was kind of Oh, I forgot like Del Taco's out here
anymore. But I think as I got into prololl and stuff too, I
stopped like eating fast food and everything. But curse the fur the most part.
Uh, probably those two, I guess. All right. So,
oh, by the way, were you like a stud in high school?
Did everybody know you? Were you the man? Not? Really? I
was like good in Little League and stuff, and then I became like the
bootiest mess of a person you've ever seen. Ida size like fifteen shoe and
I was like five eight, So I just looked like like a baby giraffe.
That was my nickname was baby Diraffe. So I just was like an
absolute goober. I like would bounce when I walked, and I like finally
kind of grew into myself when I was a senior and I started throwing all
hard and I was always athletic, I just couldn't keep my limbs under me,
and then I figured it out my senior year, and I think some
scouts were like, all right, we can get them early, and then
uh yeah, and then the rest is now, did you really have size
fifteen feet when you were Yeah, I was, Yeah, that was a
weird looking dude. Yeah, it was. It was strange like as I
was younger too, Like my shoe grew the same as my age. It
was like eleven to eleven, twelve, twelve, thirty thirteen, and then
like it just somehow my foot got huge and I didn't grow at all.
And then my freshman year, I was like five eight, five nine,
and then my junior year, I was like six six. So I just
got like it was a lot of growing, you know, in a short
amount of time. But then yeah, I figured it out. So I'm
glad. I would say, Tyler glasnow is our guest. Okay, So
you could have been a free agent after this upcoming year, but you decided
that you would hook up here with the Dodgers. Why did you make the
decision you did. Why didn't you just go out into the market and see
what happens. Yeah, I think the Dodgers was on the short list.
Of teams that I wanted to go to. And I guess it was never
really about like making as much as I possibly could. I think it was
just as long as like I could go somewherehere I knew I would be happy
on and off the field. It would be good. Like I don't really
like spend a ton of money. I guess, like I like to go
on like big and stuff. But as long as I could like make enough
to do the things I like and like, you know, just have like
a fun time, I didn't. I didn't really worry about it, So
it wasn't I was never really said I'm trying to like make as much as
I could. I just think I saw the opportunity to play her team I've
always wanted to play with, and they were very aggressive and like trying to
trade for me, and I mean, and it meant a lot to me,
Like they wanted to they wanted me on their team really bad, and
and so I felt like an extension was perfect and it's it's worked out really
great, all right, So how how do you figure this out? How
do you learn about it? You're sitting at home or you're sitting wherever,
and you got a call that says the Dodgers are interested in trading for you.
Talk about how all of this happened. Yeah, it was. So
I kept like kind of seeing my agent was keeping me involved and everything like
that. And then like for the most part, I don't like look online
a ton, I don't have a Twitter anything, but like a lot of
my friends and family will be like, these are the rumors, you're going
here, You're going here, You're going here. So I would hear kind
of third party stuff and then like through my agent and every thing. And
I think there was a few amount of teams that I was interested in and
a few teams trying and trade for me that I didn't I really didn't want
to go to. So I think it was one of the things that meander.
We were kind of talking a little bit throughout the process, but it
ended up being the Dodgers, and that was the team that I heard about
before, and I think when they I knew that they were like the most
interested, and I think it was for me. I really wanted to be
traded there, and I think the only way that was going to happen it
was through an extension. So I was I was ecstatic when I finally heard
the news and was able to be a Dodger. So obviously you've talked to
Andrew Fried, when you've talked to Dave Roberts. What were your impressions after
those conversations? All super positive? They're great. Like I said, they
kind of remind me of The Raise in a sense too, to where everyone
is like a very like high character, like a really good good person,
and then I know the game well. And I think that's kind of a
priority for Andrew and the Dodgers, like get a really good it's very like
important to create a good culture, and I was used to that with The
Raise. And I know Andrew and Erica are really good friends and there's a
lot of similarities between them. But I talked to them both, and I
talked to Dave Roberts, and I'm just excited to go work with them,
and they both seem like such good people and they're all very knowledgeable about what
they do and just two big baseball guys. You know, Is that hard
to leave Tampa? Yeah, it's pittter sweet. I think I've been there
for so long and it's not really standard for people to go there and stay
there very long. Generally like you kind of go and get traded out after
a few years, and I was fortunate enough to stay there and kind of
make it my home and I have a house there and I got to know
like the community and a lot of people around the area. So it's definitely
sad to go. But I'd been traded once before and it has gone really
well and I enjoy like kind of going all around and playing baseball. So
I'm just excited I get to go play for my hometown team. And your
hometown team. That means your folks can watch you, your friends can watch
you. Does that mean something to you, Yeah, for sure. I
think it was everyone's stream growing up, like every when you play baseball with
like, could you imagine playing for the Dodgers. It was always so it
was just crazy, and I would always watch games and just like want to
be in the dugout so bad and play for the team. And I think
once it became a real opportunity, it was like, Wow, I got
to do this, but it is It's great. I got a lot of
people. I had like three hundred text messages from friends and family and everything,
and everyone's just sending me good wishes and stuff. So I am.
I'm really excited for them to be able to watch me play for the Dodgers.
Tyler Glass now is our guest, all right, so let's just talk
about there have been periods of your career you've been dinged up. Is that
fair to say? Yeah? Definitely? Okay, what has that been like
for you? Because initially when your name popped up first, everybody knows you
can pitch and you can probably be one of the cornerstones of the rotation.
So we'll put that in this pile. But there was talk really seems to
get hurt. Can you talk about some of the injuries you've had? Yeah,
So, I think it was before twenty nineteen, I'd never really been
injured like I'd never I take good care of myself and I've had a lot
of really good coaches and a lot of good trainers throughout the minor league where
I got to get to the point where, like, I understand my body
enough to stay healthy. And then in twenty nineteen, I was pitching against
the Yankees, I think yeah, and then I felt the pop in my
elbow and we went and got an MRI. And in the MRI for the
most part, showed the health of the ligament being relatively good, so I
was like, all right, I guess I'm fine, but I just had
this excruciating pain in my elbow. So it was in nineteen I didn't feel
very good. In twenty and then twenty one I also got hurt. But
for the majority of the time I missed. For like ninety percent of the
time I've missed, it was the same exact injury in my elbow. And
then over time they kept mriing it. Nothing really changed on the MRIs,
but we ended up just being like, all right, we got to go
in for surgery because I can't. It was just excruciating for three years.
It took me a really long time to warm up and something just didn't feel
right, and after about eighty or so innings every year, it just couldn't
do it anymore, like it would give out. And so they went in
and they found out that the ligament health looks fine on the MRI because the
attachment was off the bone so you couldn't pick it up on the MRI.
But all like my UCL was just like not on my elbow. So it
was like one of those things where it was like, Wow, this has
been like this for three years, and I think I'd give it time to
heal and it would almost like scar tissue or callous over and then after a
certain amount of like torque and load on it, it would just give out.
So for a while there, I thought that I was going to have
to just play with that for the rest of my career. But I ended
up getting Tommy John and it was just incredibly like a night and day difference,
Like honestly from when I woke up from surgery, like even being in
pain, being like, yeah, that's that's way better. So it's been
two years now and I've been able to throw and I feel completely back and
normal. So I think a lot of like those major injuries are behind me.
So I'm looking forward to the future of like being healthy. You know,
first, thank you for your honesty there. I don't think the average
person when you say you were in pain really understands what that means. Can
you put it into words what kind of pain it was? It was?
It was like making stabbing and magging like all at the same time. I
think you you develop a routine over time as a baseball player to like you
always are going to deal with something so like you have to just like play
through pain or discomfort. And it was one of those things where I was
still able to go out and throw hard, so it was like there's no
I'm not going to go get surgery, Like I'm just going to play through
the pain. Like if I'm still out here throwing a hundred, there's no
need to go in there and change it. I never had a I was
in the bullpen the year prior. I didn't have like a huge sample size
of innings, and I think getting it, like going through surgery at that
point would have been bad for my career and everything. So I think I
kind of just had to kind of like grip my teeth a little bit and
just pitch through it. But it was it was just a really weird feeling.
It was always one of those things you wake up. It's the first
thing you think about, and it's just it's always in your head, like
how am I going to get through this? And it was cool. It
was in a weird way. Like the positive lining was I learned to develop
a routine to like even with that ligament. The way it was like I
got into this, I had this like hour long routine to get it all
ready, and like, I learned a lot about what I can do to
like turn on other parts of my muscles or like I'm not parts of my
body to like not put so much stress on that part of my elbow.
So I gained some knowledge from it. It definitely was painful, but I
think now looking back, it's like, all right, it's sticks now and
it's not a big deal. But it definitely at the time was pretty painful
and pretty stressful, but it ended up working out, so it's all good,
all right, pain free. In your conversations with Andrew and Dave,
did they indicate where you'll be in the rotation or you just want to go
out there and they'll figure it out when you get there. I think figure
out when I get there. Yeah, I've never really talked about it anyway.
I've never even too like earlier with the rays or anything. People always
talk about like if you're opening day or if you're like one to five.
I've always like, well, I didn't matter you don't you know what I
mean? You got to throw the same amount of starts all year long.
So it's not something that's like super important to me. I just want to
be able to go out and make all my starts pitch well, and I
just want to win. So all right, a couple more quick ones here,
We'll let you go the tattoos old dirty bastard on your soul right foot.
But it's faint. Why did you put that there? Because there was
something like growing up like rap and all that, So it was just like
a huge part of my like child and I guess and it was just I
think too being in that area for some reason, like old New York hip
hop and stuff was very big, and just rap in general was big.
There were so many. It was just like I always remember being with my
friends and listening to music, and it was just kind of like I think,
for a lot of people's music is very nostalgic. And when I think
back, when I hear any like U Tank songs or ODB or anything like
that, it like brings me back to, like you know what I mean,
when you're in high school or when you're in middle school, and it's
just it's like a very nostalgic thing. So I think all the tattoos I
do have are like nostalgic things that remind me of like my my like upbringing.
I guess. And I'm just a huge fan of ODB. I love
the way because voice sounds and how he rapped, and it just it was
like a no brainer. I was living in New York at the time,
and I was like, let's do it. It's just an easy decision for
me. Did it hurt Not really? Not really. It was like the
bottom of your foot, it's like pretty pretty relaxed, like skin down there.
A lot of it's like dead, So I didn't I didn't really feel
it. It wasn't too bad, all right, Well, how about the
no juice on the inside of your lip? Did that hurt that surprisingly?
No? Not really. It's kind of weird like that didn't hurt that bad
either, I guess too. If you like pinch the inside of your lip
and feel it, it's it's like there's not a lot of nerve endings there.
So that was another one. I just kind of like do it,
why not? And a lot of my tattoos too, aren't like out in
the open. It's kind of like in the little hidden spots, and it's
kind for me, And it was just like a funny idea, and a
lot of my tattoos kind of like probably just more like funny than anything.
I don't really I just take myself too seriously, So it just it made
a lot of sense. But it's again, it's like, that's another nostalgic
one. I can proball. A lot of guys love Little Boosie, and
it was just one of those things. When I think back I look at
it, I'm like, oh, it reminds me of all those cool,
like grindy minor league games. Uh. How many tattoos do you have,
Tyler? I have one, two, three, four? All right,
well we know too. What are the other two? The other one is
a baby Dirafte on my foot because that was my nickname in high school because
I was just like a in my early in pro ball, I just like
couldn't walk right. But I have a baby giraffe. And then I have
like a little a little islandy thing because I like to travel and go different
places and stuff. So they're all like little like nostalgia things. They like
when I look at them, they like, take me to my happy place,
you know, kind of one of those. But they're all relatively hidden,
and yeah, I just I just get them randomly throughout the years.
I guess, Well, listen, welcome home. Dodgers are thrilled to have
you a fancier or excited to see and thanks for doing this today. Yeah,
absolutely, I appreciate it. Man, this is fun.