The Dodgers didn't just help Tyler Glasnow get healthy, they helped him get better

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow had his first scoreless outing since last June on Monday against the Braves. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

In the span of just eight months, so much seemingly had changed.

Last August the Dodgers were not yet defending champions, more than two months out from their run to a World Series title. Veteran pitcher Tyler Glasnow 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.

Glasnow still was confident in his health, believing his careerlong elbow problems finally were behind him. He still was sure of his abilities, even while battling a prolonged second-half slump. He still was seen as the most dependable starter in the rotation, the potential final piece in the Dodgers’ pursuit of a championship.

Instead, Glasnow became one of the biggest missing pieces last October after being shut down in mid-August because of elbow tendinitis. His absence was among the most daunting obstacles of the postseason, leaving an already shorthanded staff in an almost impossible spot.

That’s why even though the Dodgers won the World Series, earning Glasnow his first 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.

“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 season ended prematurely, it all culminated in an auspicious start to the new year as Glasnow pitched five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts, giving up only two hits 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 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 changes he made this offseason and offered a promising 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. “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 steppingstone.”

Last year, sustaining such dominance was a challenge for Glasnow, especially as he reached career highs in starts (22) and innings (134). After cruising through the first half with an 8-5 record and 2.88 earned-run average, earning his first All-Star selection, the team’s $136.5-million offseason acquisition looked out of sync in the following weeks, 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 being sidelined for good. But Glasnow’s mental approach also seemed to contribute to the problems. Too often, he acknowledged, he became preoccupied with his mechanics. 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.

“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 like a golfer trying not to overanalyze 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, 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.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow reacts after striking out the Braves’ Austin Riley in the fifth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“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 the period 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.”

Glasnow also noted a series of tweaks to his pitch grip 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.

“Having that curveball has helped me out,” Glasnow said. “I think all of it has kind of come together.”

There are still kinks to work out in the process, stretches in which Glasnow’s old bothersome feelings inevitably will arise. On Monday night it happened in the second, when Glasnow briefly lost his rhythm and walked consecutive batters to begin the inning.

“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 down, retired the next three batters and went on to complete his first scoreless outing since last June 16.

“It’s the least I’ve thought mechanically in a long time,” he said afterward. “I feel athletic and free and good.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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The Dodgers didn’t just help Tyler Glasnow get healthy, they helped him get better

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