Pepiot confident following productive offseason
GLENDALE, ARIZ ❯❯ In his first big-league action last year, Ryan Pepiot established one thing. When he threw strikes, he was very difficult to hit.
He just didn't throw enough of them. And he knows it.
“It was a combination of trying a little too hard, trying to do too much and not being myself, not knowing that me being me and just doing what I can do was enough,” the Dodgers' pitching prospect said. “You get in this clubhouse and you've got these guys then you go out there and you're trying to earn respect, build a reputation so that everyone wants you around. Just trying to do too much. Then it was a little bit on the mechanical side.
“I kind of got away from what I do best and going out and attacking the (strike) zone. Everything was just leaking away from me and I couldn't control it.”
Over nine games with the Dodgers last season (seven starts), Pepiot walked 27 batters in 36 1/3 innings and hit three more. Only 59 percent of his pitches were strikes. He went to a full count nearly once out of every four batters faced. He managed to throw 77 pitches in just three innings in his major-league debut and 74 in just two innings in a September relief appearance.
“He was happy obviously that he got called up last year and made it to pitch for us,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “But he obviously knew there was a lot of things he had to work on.”
If he had a difficult time attacking the strike zone in the big leagues last year, Pepiot didn't hesitate to attack his problems this offseason. He spent most of it in Arizona, working with minor-league pitching coaches Rob Hill and Sean Coyne at the Camelback Ranch complex and working with the performance staff to get in better physical shape, dropping 15 pounds in the process.
There were no major changes to be made, Pepiot said.
“No. Just get back to what I do best — attacking with the fastball, the changeup going down rather than my changeup running 4,000 feet off the plate last year,” he said. “Just eliminating the noncompetitive pitches.”
That changeup was the highlight of every scouting report filed on Pepiot in the years since the Dodgers made him their thirdround pick out of Butler University in 2019. But he didn't bring it to the major leagues with him.
“That's what we all knew about this guy — he's got this great changeup. He never had his changeup last year,” Prior said. “His changeup was terrible last year. He couldn't get it on the strike zone. The movement was terrible. A lot of non-competitive pitches. That needs to be re-established. And we've seen that so far in camp, more of his changeup that he had — that split action with depth over the plate. That's going to allow him to be not as fine. His fastball has a ton of life through the zone. He should be real confident right now.”
Getting in better shape this winter has allowed him to “get my body in better positions to be able to access the zone,” Pepiot said. That includes “a little more over the top” release point.
Even with his command issues last season, Pepiot held big-league hitters to a .200 average — .107 against the sub-optimal version of his changeup — and struck out 42.
“Pep's never been, from my understanding, an 80 command guy,” Prior said, using the top of the scouting scale. “He's always had really good stuff. So from that standpoint it's just trying to find that fine line where you can control your emotions and you can make pitches in crunch time.
“But we saw a lot of really good things out of him. … He just had a really tough time trying to get on track.”
The positives of his bigleague baptism and faith in his offseason work have given Pepiot confidence going into this season, knowing that he will almost certainly be called on again by the Dodgers.
“I knew personally from going back and watching that I had some success when I was in the zone,” said Pepiot who will start for the Dodgers in Monday's Cactus League game against the San Diego Padres. “That gave me the confidence boost to know, `Okay, when you are in the zone and you are attacking hitters, you can do this and you can compete at the highest level.' So whatever you can do, find a way to get back to that.”
Notes
Miguel Vargas has progressed well enough in his recovery from a hairline fracture in his right pinky to start two-handed swings. He said he swung at both “flips” and off the tee during Sunday's workout. … Mookie Betts is expected to make his first start of the Cactus League season on Monday against the Padres. Julio Urias is tentatively scheduled to make his first start on Tuesday against the Reds.