Rays Right-Hander Ryan Pepiot Addresses His Repertoire

Ryan Pepiot was a highly regarded prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization when he was first featured here at FanGraphs in June 2021. Then 23 years old and pitching in Double-A, the right-hander out of Butler University discussed his signature pitch, a changeup that our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen had likened to Devin Williams’ high-spin Airbender.

Pepiot is now with the Tampa Bay Rays, having been acquired from Los Angeles along with Jonny DeLuca in exchange for Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot last December. He has also emerged as an established big league starter. Getting his first extended opportunity after making 17 appearances over the two previous seasons, he made 26 starts, posting a 3.60 ERA and 3.95 FIP over 130 innings.

Three-plus years after our initial conversation, I sat down with Pepiot on the final weekend of the 2024 regular season, this time to touch on each of his five pitches.

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David Laurila: What is your full repertoire right now?

Ryan Pepiot: “Four-seam fastball, changeup, slider, cutter, and a curveball that I’ll throw occasionally.”

Laurila: Which of those is most natural? Basically, you can pick up a baseball and throw it with hardly any thought.

Pepiot: “Fastball.”

Laurila: That was the predictable answer…

Peopiot: “Yeah. Offspeed-wise, it would probably be the changeup. It’s a feel pitch, but I throw it so often that I have it pretty much down. And then the slider and cutter are basically the same pitch; I’m just turning the ball a little bit more to get some depth for the righties. That’s the slider. For lefties, I’ll throw it more cutter-like to get more [positive] vert on it.”

Laurila: Which of your pitches have you tinkered with the most?

Pepiot: “The curveball. In college, I had one — it was a slow, big breaking ball that wasn’t very good. I tried to throw it in pro ball, but could never really get the feel down for it. I would never land it for a strike. I remember in 2021, in Double-A, I threw one behind a righty. I was like, ‘I’m done with it.’

“I came here [to the Tampa Bay organization] and would mess around with it in catch play. I threw one in spring training — it was really good — and [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder was like, ‘On the mound tomorrow; throw me that.’ So I did, and then we tinkered around with the grip a little bit more. It’s like a seam-shifted curveball. It’s not just a big old breaking ball, it actually comes out like my fastball.”

Laurila: Which of your pitches is most seam-shifted?

Pepiot: “Maybe my changeup. You take a four-seam, you’ve got the horseshoe, and I kind of hook my pinky into the horseshoe and try to pull with my ring finger on the seam to get downward action. It’s kind of like Devin Williams’. I try to do the same thing he does, just with a little different grip.”

Laurila: You obviously have Edgertronic to show you how your pitches are coming out of your hand. How much attention do you pay to that when throwing bullpens?

Pepiot: “Not a lot. I throw my 20-25 pitches, mostly just trying to get the feel down. I rely on the eye test more than the numbers. It’s kind of the same in spring training. I’ll have Brandon [Lowe], Yandy [Díaz], or someone stand in, in my early bullpens. I’ll be like, ‘Hey, what do you see? What do you see coming out of the hand? How would you attack it?’ I get the hitter’s perspective. It’s, ‘OK, he saw it this way,’ and from there I can make minor adjustments if I need to.”

Laurila: Circling back to your curveball, how many different grips would you say you’ve tried over the years?

Pepiot: “Maybe six? I’ve tried the front side of the horseshoe, the back side of the horseshoe, spiked, my fingers together — stacking my fingers on the seam — the sweeper-style curveball. Now it’s seam-shifted, in the horseshoe, so I catch the front of it and then turn left. So yeah, probably six.”

Laurila: With seams in mind, what about the baseballs themselves? Are there certain balls you tend to throw out because they aren’t ideal for how you want your next pitch to move?

Pepiot: “For me, it’s more that if I get a ball and don’t like how it feels — maybe it’s not rubbed up enough, or it has high seams — I’ll throw it out. Depending on the count… for instance, if I get high seams I’ll hope [the catcher] calls a changeup. But for the most part, I don’t throw it out too much. I’ll throw it out every time the ball gets hit, though. Even if it’s an out.”

Laurila: A batter pops out to the second baseman and you want a new ball?

Pepiot: “Yep. Done.”

Laurila: Why wouldn’t you keep a ball after that?

Pepiot: “I just want a new ball. Do it again with another one, I guess.”

Laurila: You don’t like high seams unless you’re throwing a changeup. Why is that?

Pepiot: “I like to rip the seams, and it feels like it rips my finger pads. So, I like the lower seams. It just feels better coming out of my hand.”

Laurila: What about the movement you get on your pitches? Do the seams impact that at all?

Pepiot: “I haven’t actually done any research, or tried throwing in a bullpen with the Edgertronic or any of the TrackMan stuff, to see what the difference would be if I had a high-seam ball compared to a low-seam ball.”

Laurila: Regardless, not all baseballs are the same…

Pepiot: “How rubbed up the balls are definitely differs. If we’re at home, I know I’m getting the same thing, but on the road, some are a little more rubbed up than others. To me, that’s the biggest difference. The seams… I mean, they hand-do the balls, so not every one is going to be identical. But I try to think about that. I just get the ball, rub it up a little bit, see which seams I like, see which side of the baseball I like. I find my grip in my glove and let it rip.”