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Dodgers are hopeful Tyler Glasnow can be an ace. But first, he'll have to stay healthy
For a pitcher who just signed a nine-figure contract extension, who has been mentioned as one of the best natural talents in baseball, and who figures to be one of the key cogs for this season’s Dodgers team, Tyler Glasnow’s personal goals for 2024 might seem rather modest.
“I just wanna stay healthy this year,” the long-haired, long-limbed and oft-injured right-hander said at the start of spring training this week. “And make all my starts.”
The Dodgers, of course, are expecting much more from the new co-ace of their remade rotation.
They dealt a sizable trade package to the Tampa Bay Rays to acquire Glasnow this offseason — giving up highly touted pitching prospect Ryan Pepiot and outfield prospect Jonny DeLuca — in hopes the 30-year-old flamethrower could fill the club’s void of true front-line pitching talent.
They extended Glasnow on a five-year, $136.5-million contract — the most guaranteed money a Dodgers pitcher had received under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, until Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s MLB-record signing a week later — with the idea the Southland native could help carry the pitching staff for a half-decade to come.
“When he makes his throw, there’s a lot of conviction,” manager Dave Roberts said. “His ball has a lot of carry in the strike zone. And when you’re talking about an upper-90s fastball that’s thrown with conviction through the catcher, it makes it pretty special.”
Before such lofty expectations can be met, however, Glasnow will have to hit a few more basic objectives first.
Get through the rest of this spring training healthy. Manage what could be the first true full-season workload of his career. And consistently showcase his potential over a 162-game season , avoiding the kind of injury-related speed bumps and detours that have limited him to only two campaigns of 100 or more innings out of his eight MLB seasons.
“We feel like the arrow is really pointing up and that, over the next few years, he is really going to take on a lot of starts,” Friedman said of Glasnow last week. “The work ethic is there. We spent a lot of time digging into that. And that’s a bet we’re making.”
Whether that gamble pays off or not could have far-reaching impacts for the Dodgers.
The last two years, the team lacked a consistent ace to stabilize an often-times patchwork rotation.
Walker Buehler was supposed to be the guy in 2022, before blowing out his elbow and undergoing Tommy John surgery. Julio Urías was primed for the role last year, only to underperform through the summer before missing the stretch run following an arrest for suspicion of domestic violence in September. Clayton Kershaw tried to step up in their absences, but dealt with his own physical limitations before having a shoulder surgery this past offseason.
That’s why, outside of the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes, the Dodgers viewed the rotation as their No. 1 priority this winter.
Yamamoto, the Japanese league star who signed for $325 million, ended up being their splashiest free-agent addition. But, as he eases into his transition to MLB, it’s Glasnow who might be the biggest factor in the Dodgers’ near-term success.
“He’s in a good spot right now,” Roberts said after watching one of Glasnow’s first bullpens of the spring this week. “We just want him to be himself.”
Glasnow has rarely been able to showcase his true self over extended stretches on the mound.
Tyler Glasnow, pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays against the Seattle Mariners on July 1, 2023, has never gone more than 14 consecutive starts in a season without getting injured.
(Stephen Brashear / Associated Press)
A former fifth-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Hart High in Santa Clarita, Glasnow has dealt with injuries at almost every turn of his journey in the big leagues.
After his second outing as a rookie in 2016, he went on the injured list with a shoulder injury. After being dealt in 2018 to the Rays, who made the then-swingman reliever a full-time starter, Glasnow dealt with a litany of elbow and forearm problems — all of which culminated with Tommy John surgery in 2021.
Even last year, as Glasnow set career highs in starts (21), innings (120) and strikeouts (162), he missed two months with an oblique injury and another week with back spasms.
As a result, Glasnow has never been to an All-Star Game, despite a highly touted pitching arsenal that pairs his power fastball with a hard slider and wipeout curveball. He has never received Cy Young votes, even though he has the 11th-best ERA among MLB pitchers since 2019 (minimum 300 innings). And he’s hardly even experienced a half-season of uninterrupted play, having never made more than 14 consecutive outings in a single campaign without suffering an injury.
Latest from spring training
“I think sometimes with medical histories, there’s usually breadcrumbs of what was going on, what happened,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “I think, in his situation, it sounds like there was some stuff that always persistently lingered.”
This year, the Dodgers are hoping Glasnow will turn a corner.
Most of Glasnow’s past ailments, both he and Dodgers officials believe, were either related to his now surgically repaired elbow, or were “freakish” issues, as Friedman described them, that the team feels confident won’t pop up again.
“We feel like he is going to hold up and he’s going to be a big part of what we do,” Friedman said.
“I think it’s probably safe to say if we didn’t feel optimistic,” Prior added, “that we wouldn’t have done it.”
Glasnow also indicated he is in a better place physically than he has been in years past, noting that ever since his elbow healed, “everything was good and I feel really good right now.”
Indeed, instead of a rehabilitation or recovery program this spring, the 6-foot-8 hurler has been working with Dodgers coaches to refine his mechanics and hone in on specific “feels” with his pitches — a key process for a veteran that Roberts described as “thoughtful” and “cerebral” with his delivery.
During a bullpen session last week, Glasnow and Prior spent several minutes talking through the pitcher’s delivery on the mound; covering everything from Glasnow’s release point (as Glasnow would mimic slow-motion throws, Prior would position his hand in the optimal spot) to his footwork (“For a bigger, taller guy, he moves really well,” Prior noted) to his plan for using different pitches to attack the strike zone.
“A lot of these first weeks, especially with new guys, it’s just a lot of questions and probing, trying to get an understanding of how they interpret things,” Prior said. “We definitely have some thoughts. But I think our first thing is always to try to draw out of them how they want to go about the process and what they internalize.”
Once the season starts, Glasnow and the Dodgers will have to hit the ground running.
Yamamoto won’t be immediately rushed into a standard every-five-days starting schedule, needing time to adjust from his once-per-week schedule in Japan. Buehler isn’t expected to be ready in time for opening day, and will probably face workload restrictions after his expected return early in the year. Another new signing, James Paxton, has his own history of injuries that might prompt the Dodgers to give him extra rest.
While it doesn’t necessarily mean Glasnow will be asked to shoulder a greater share of the pitching workload early in the year — Roberts noted that the club remains “mindful” of the fact Glasnow hasn’t pitched a full season before — it will likely position him as the rotation’s anchor in the early going, if not its leading ace for much of the season.
“For Glass,” Friedman said, referencing an unintentionally ironic nickname for a pitcher who has too often seemed made of it, “I think he’s good to go however the schedule shakes out.”
“The body, the work ethic, the stuff we feel like is going to hold up,” Friedman added. “He’s going to be a big part of what we do.”
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LAS VEGAS – Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were once brothers in arms in the Judgment Day. The two helped the faction run “Monday Night Raw” for several years.
As championships and opportunities came and went, the rift between Balor and Mysterio grew. It came to a head when Balor caused Mysterio to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Penta. Balor leaving the Judgment Day left Mysterio and Liv Morgan as the leaders with JD McDonagh, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez sticking around.
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The latter four chose to ride with Mysterio and attacked Balor on one episode of Raw.
The bitter war led to a match Sunday night at WrestleMania 42. To make matters more interesting, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the match a street fight hours before the show was set to begin.
Balor had vowed to bring the “Demon” out and he certainly did.
JACOB FATU PUTS DREW MCINTYRE IN THE ‘REAR VIEW’ IN UNSANCTIONED MATCH AT WRESTLEMANIA 42
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Balor made his way to the ring in his “Demon” gear, dripping with red and black paint. Mysterio was in a mask with other Mysterio supporters.
The two then proceeded to beat the crud out of each other.
Mysterio wrapped Balor’s head in between a chair and hit a 619 on him. He tried to pin Balor, but to no avail. At another point, Mysterio tossed Balor through a table set up in the corner.
As many have learned, it’s hard to keep your demons down. Mysterio learned the hard way.
Balor would not give up. Balor clotheslined Mysterio, hit him with a chair multiple times before wrapping his head in between the chair and drop-kicking him into the corner. Balor put Mysterio onto a table and hit the Coup de Grâce for the win.
Dominik Mysterio is introduced before his match against Finn Balor during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Balor excised his own demons, while Mysterio is still haunted.
DENVER — What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
With a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champions lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead, letting the Rockies tee off for 15 hits.
Nor could the Dodgers keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park — though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning, when Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double and the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. Then the new guy, Ryan Ward, made the final out in his big league debut, robbed of a hit and a chance to keep chipping away by a diving Troy Johnston in right field.
Before that, the Rockies — who beat the Dodgers twice in 13 meetings all of last season — chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Díaz, who came on in the eighth and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs before being pulled with the Dodgers trailing 8-4.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings Sunday against the Rockies in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
“They both weren’t sharp,” said manager Dave Roberts, who had theories but not many answers — though he did have real concern, especially about Díaz, who recently had his right knee checked out by the medical staff.
Roberts said the closer wanted to pitch after nine days off, even though it wasn’t a save situation. But his velocity was slightly down (95.4 mph vs. 95.8) and so, “today was a tough evaluation,” the manager said.
“It really was,” Roberts said. “Because, you know, I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really.”
And losing for the second time to the Rockies, who are now 9-13? Being in danger of losing their four-game series, after arriving in Denver without having lost to a National League opponent, against a club that hasn’t made the postseason since 2018?
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning, lining a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0 and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
“When I was on first base, I got to see them all jumping around up there,” Ward said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
He also singled in the sixth and swung on the first pitch in his first at-bat, a fly out in the third inning.
The Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead in the third. Alex Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim, and Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland — and extended his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers history.
Sasaki went 4-2/3 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out two and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Mickey Moniak.
The result likely will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story years from now about getting the call after first baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list.
The Dodgers’ No. 19 prospect and reigning Pacific Coast League MVP spent the last seven years in the minors. Last season, he hit 36 home runs and drove in 122 runs with a .937 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for triple-A Oklahoma City, and he has a 1.020 OPS and four homers this year.
Ward made it a point to improve his chase rate, draw more walks and get on base more frequently, everything the Dodgers asked of him. He also passed the broadest patience test.
“The plate discipline, being a better hitter … he’s done all that,” Roberts said. “He’s improved his defense. But honestly, for me, just not to let his lack of opportunity in the big leagues deter him. That’s easy when you get frustrated and let it affect performance, and he hasn’t done that.”
If anything, Ward said, the waiting made him better.
“I used it to keep going. ‘OK, if I’m not there yet, what do I have to do to get there?’” he said. “‘What part of my game do I need to work on to keep getting better?’
“I used it as fire to keep working.”
That will be the Dodgers’ assignment too.
In the finale of the four-game series Monday, the Dodgers are expected to start left-hander Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) against Colorado left-hander Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63).
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
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