Ryan Pepiot is a young pitcher that has created a lot of buzz in the Dodgers organization in the last couple of years and is looking forward to a big 2023. Pepiot has a big frame at 6’3″ and 215 pounds and is, no doubt, a power pitcher, but, what potentially separates him is that he is much, much more than just that.

Background

Pepiot has a very explosive arsenal with a riding 4-seam, a power slider that is still being fine-tuned, and a changeup that acts more like a left-handed slider than it does a pitch with fade. He set Butler’s all-time school single-season strikeout record at 126 while he was in college, and also broke the school’s career strikeout record at 306 in 2019.

After a record-setting career as a Bulldog, he was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2019 draft by the Dodgers.

As Pepiot started his career as a Dodger, he started flashing his big stuff and one in particular pitch he was throwing started separating him from the rest, his change-up.

Pepiots change-up is so good that it caught the attention of Will Rhymes, the Dodgers farm director. Here’s what he said about the pitch.

I think his changeup is one of the best pitches in our org,

Notice that Rhymes didn’t say that Pepiots changeup was one of the best change-ups in the Dodgers organization, he said it was one of the best pitches in the organization.

That’s some seriously high praise.

Take a look at Pepiots change up for yourself and be your own judge.

Speed Differential

Pepiot’s change-up is 84-86, which is an 8-10 mph difference from his fastball so it creates a lot of swing and miss for him. I’ve had a chance to watch Ryan on many different occasions, at both OKC and Tulsa, and my biggest takeaway is that, although he possesses the big arm, he really is a guy that pitches. He commands 3 pitches, with the capability of more than that, and his breaking ball stuff looks just like his fastball coming out of his hand.

Slider

His slider is a 3-9 shaped pitch that he throws a little harder which induces a lot of rollover ground balls. He has thrown a 12-6 softer breaking ball in the past, but the harder slider tunnels better off the fastball so he is throwing it more.

Tunneling

One of the most effective aspects to Pepiots arsenal is his ability to tunnel his pitches. Tunneling simply means that you start every pitch at the same spot, but, while the 4-seam keeps riding up in the zone, the slider turns left and the changeup turns right. It’s very effective, because, when the hitter has to make their swing decision, they have to decipher all that in a split second.

4-Seam

His fastball is over the top and he’s not cross-firing as much as he has in the past, but that’s a trade-off. Here’s a video of the release point I’m talking about. Notice how his hand stays behind the ball as opposed to getting to the side of it or covering it up for a breaking ball.

There isn’t a thing we can’t do with @ryanpepiot2 on the mound. Longest start for the Drillers this season.

6 IP | 1 H | 0 BB | 6 K pic.twitter.com/khl8O4ssUO
— Tulsa Drillers (@TulsaDrillers) June 24, 2021

Pepiots fastball averaged 94 last year with L.A. but has hit as high as 96. He throws it 56% of the time and relies on it to get ahead of hitters and uses it to tunnel pitches off of it.

Command

Pepiot struggled with his command at the MLB level last year walking 27 in 36.1 innings. Although he posted a 3.47 ERA, which would have been the 29th-best ERA in the MLB with enough innings to qualify, his command was concerning, there’s no getting around that.

Although concerning, it’s also easily explained.

He was pressing.

Pepiot is a pitcher that relies on a lot of feel and it takes him time to get comfortable at each new level, something of which he wasn’t given the chance to do last year. At the end of 2021, he struggled to make the transition to AAA posting a 7.13 ERA with an average against of .305 and a WHIP of 1.80 in 41.2 innings. But, then, in this past season in AAA, once he got settled into that level and got comfortable, he was one of the best pitchers in the PCL.

In 2022, in OKC, Pepiot was dominant. His ERA was 2.16, his average against was just .193 and his WHIP was just 1.07.

And, he walked just 36 hitters in 91.1 innings.

Once Pepiot is given enough time to get settled in, he gets comfortable with his stuff at whatever level he is at, and when that happens, he is a top-caliber pitcher.

2023

Pepiot got his feet wet at the MLB level in 2022 and had mixed results. Although he flashed a lot of “swing and miss”, he also didn’t have great command. But, the command issues, again, in my opinion, can almost entirely be explained by “spotty” duty that led to pressing, similar to what we’ve seen with Gavin Lux over the years.

So, 2023 will be a very big year for him and I really hope the organization gives him enough runway to get comfortable. If they do, he will prove to be a very, very good pitcher at the MLB level.

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