In the span of just eight months, so much had seemingly changed.
Last August, the Dodgers were not yet defending champions, more than two months out from their unlikely run to a World Series title. Veteran pitcher Tyler Glasnow, meanwhile, was in the midst of one of his best seasons, not yet sidelined by the elbow injury that would end his campaign early and rule him out of the playoffs.
Back then, Glasnow was still confident in his health, believing his career-long elbow problems were finally behind him. He was still assured of his abilities, even while battling a prolonged second-half slump. He was still seen as the most dependable name in the team’s starting pitching rotation, too, the potential missing piece in their pursuit of a championship.
Instead, of course, Glasnow became one of the biggest pieces the Dodgers wound up missing last October, after getting shut down in mid-August with elbow tendinitis. His absence from the mound was among the most daunting obstacles of the team’s postseason, leaving an already shorthanded pitching staff in an (almost) impossible spot.
That’s why, even though the Dodgers won the World Series, earning Glasnow his first world championship ring, the 31-year-old right-hander embarked on something of a reinvention this offseason — altering everything from his throwing program, to his pitching grips, to his mental approach before and during starts.
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"I feel really comfortable with what I worked on,” he said. “I've kind of changed a ton of stuff.”
And on Monday night, in his return to a big-league mound eight months after his 2024 season ended prematurely, it all culminated in an auspicious start to his 2025 — as Glasnow pitched five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and only two hits allowed during the Dodgers’ 6-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.
"He's one of the best pitchers in the game. We're fortunate to have him,” catcher Will Smith said afterward. “When he needed to make a pitch, he executed it.”
Glasnow was in vintage personal form in his season debut, holding the Braves without a hit until the fifth inning.
He attacked the strike zone with a heavy fastball, touching 98 mph on the radar gun. He snapped off a flurry of swing-and-miss curveballs and sliders, inducing 13 whiffs on just a 79-pitch night. Most important, he integrated the myriad of changes he made this offseason — from alterations in his throwing program, to tweaks on his pitch grips, to a more “external” mindset he wants to maintain during starts — and offered a promising initial preview of what he hopes is to come over the next six months.
“He was just kind of getting hitters and staying aggressive and trusting his stuff,” manager Dave Roberts said afterward. “You can see the conviction of the breaking ball today. There's a lot of bad swings with that pitch. And then the fastball played. So, yeah, I think tonight was a good stepping stone going forward.”
Last year, sustaining such dominance was a challenge for Glasnow, especially as he reached career-high totals in starts (22) and innings pitched (134).
After cruising through the first half of the season with an 8-5 record and 2.88 ERA — helping him earn his first career All-Star selection — the team’s $136.5 million offseason acquisition looked out of sync in the weeks leading up to his elbow injury, stumbling to a 5.29 ERA over his final six starts.
Part of the problem was physical, with Glasnow missing two weeks in July because of back tightness before going down for good in mid-August with elbow tendinitis.
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But Glasnow’s mental approach, both he and Dodgers coaches concurred, also seemed to contribute to the problem. Too often, he acknowledged, he became preoccupied with his mechanics during his late-season struggles. Whenever his delivery felt off, he reverted to an “internal” focus on the way his body moved rather than an “external” focus on the execution of each throw.
“It’s like, if I’m trying to bury a slider, I need to go bury a slider — as opposed to [thinking], ‘Well, that last throw felt a little too rotational,’ and then trying to align everything correctly,” Glasnow explained last week, sounding almost like a golfer trying not to over-analyze their swing.
“As long as I can have an external focus in the zone, as opposed to thinking about all my body parts [and how they are moving], it usually goes a lot better for me,” he added.
That’s why, once Glasnow returned to health in November and began seeking ways to improve in 2025, Dodgers pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness presented a wide range of ideas, suggesting changes to everything from his throwing program to his training methods to his in-game thought process.
“I think we all know that he leans toward the mechanical side,” Roberts said. “But we’re trying to free him up more. And to his credit, he's bought into that.”
One prime example: Glasnow has cut drills involving weighted and plyometric balls out of his training routine, opting for a more traditional long-toss program to build strength in his arm and fluidity in his throwing motion.
“I used to just throw a bunch of weighted balls,” Glasnow said Monday, something he believes helped increase his pitching velocities but also coincided with when his elbow started “not feeling great.”
Now, however, he is stretching his long-toss distances out to around 250 feet, more than double what he used to. And already, it is helping him create a more efficient and repeatable throw, one in which more power is being generated from his legs and smoothly flowing through the rest of his body.
“I've just been able to transfer my energy a lot smoother, [where] it's not so stiff and inconsistent,” he said. “It just seems like I can use a lot less effort and get the same stuff.”
Glasnow cited similar effects from changes he made in the weight room under the guidance of athletic development coordinator Eric Yavarone, saying his “body just feels a lot better” and is “moving more fluid.”
He also noted a series of pitch grip tweaks he has worked on with McGuiness — especially to a curveball that had gotten too “slurvy” in recent years, with an increasing amount of horizontal movement; but is back to featuring a hard-diving vertical drop that he can use to bury it in the dirt.
“I think having that curveball has helped me out,” Glasnow said. “I think all of it has kind of come together.”
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There are still kinks to work out in the process, stretches where Glasnow’s old bothersome feelings will inevitably still arise.
On Monday night, it happened in the top of the second inning, when Glasnow briefly lost his rhythm and walked consecutive batters to begin the frame.
“I don't know why, but I just felt out of sync,” he said.
But with his refined mechanics and externally-focused mindset, he immediately settled back down, retired his next three batters in order and went on to complete his first scoreless outing since last June 16.
“I think it's the least I've thought mechanically in a long time,” he said afterward. “I feel athletic and free and good."
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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