Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Tyler Glasnow has won two World Series championships since the Dodgers acquired him in the 2023-24 offseason. They signed him to a 4-year contract extension immediately upon trading for him, and through that the front office showed not only confidence in their new acquisition, but also the decision-makers who pulled the trigger on the deal.
With the Hot Stove trying its best to heat up for the next three weeks, his name has been bandied about in a trade rumor from everyone’s favorite and most accurate national MLB writer Bob Nightengale.
“If someone asks, Tyler Glasnow can be theirs, too, freeing up the $30 million he’s owed in 2027 with a $21.5 million player option in 2028.”
OK, that’s the least rumor “rumor” that may ever have been written, but this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon.
It feels like there’s weight to this because Glasnow’s name was mentioned in trade rumors last year, specifically when the Dodgers were talking with the Tigers about Tarik Skubal last winter. A day after the initial rumor surface, Glasnow himself squashed it after being told by Andrew Friedman that he wasn’t going to be traded. Still, he’s the most tradeable starting pitcher — who makes significant money — the Dodgers have.
Glasnow, 33, logged a career-high 134 innings pitched in 2024, but did not appear in the postseason. In fact, his last game of that season was Aug. 11. In 2025, he threw just 90 1/3 regular-season innings before adding 21 1/3 postseason innings — 3rd-most on the Dodgers. He made three starts and three relief appearances, doing whatever was needed for the Dodgers. In 2026, he accumulated just 74 regular-season innings and nine more in the postseason.
Why all the innings exposition? Well, when it comes to potentially trading Glasnow, it must be acknowledged that not all teams can get 328 2/3 innings (regular and postseason) over the course of three seasons from a top-of-the-rotation starter making $30 million a season and have that be acceptable. The Dodgers are built in such a way that they don’t need Glasnow to be a 150 inning-plus pitcher, mostly because he has never been that and the fact they have enough arms to cover the innings deficiency.
But with Glasnow’s name coming up in trade rumors again and his contract only having one more guaranteed season (plus a $21-plus million player option for 2028), a trade is more likely than in the past, even if it still doesn’t feel too likely.
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There’s no doubt Glasnow has the stuff to be a frontline starter.
Despite not having the best exit velo against or chase rates, he still manages to accumulate strikeouts and post impressive expected stats.
He has also adapted as a pitcher since coming to the Dodgers. He has reduced his 4-seam fastball usage in the last three years in favor of adding a sinker he never threw before coming to LA. He’s still throwing almost 56% fastballs, but it’s not the 4-seamer anymore. The sinker was the subject of a post early in the 2026 season and how it helped him take his game to another level … until he got hurt. Glasnow also has the game’s whiffiest knuckle curveball. His 50.5% whiff rate was the best MLB (minimum 245 knuckle curves thrown), which is remarkable since he just started throwing it for the first time in 2026. Additionally, his curveball ended 20 plate appearances in 2026 — 18 of them were strikeouts. I’m not sure if it’s a classification error by Statcast, but seeing as the velocity (83.8 MPH average) and spin (2,867 RPM) are different from his knuckle curve (80.5 MPH, 2,823 RPM), it’s a slightly different offering with excellent results.
Glasnow saw his walk rate spike in 2025 (11.7 BB%) before getting back to a more manageable number in 2026 (8.7 BB%). Even with the walks, here are his batting average against numbers over the last three seasons:
- 2024: .189 (4th-best in MLB)
- 2025: .175 (Best in MLB)
- 2026: .172 (3rd-best in MLB)
If you look at his xBA numbers, they’re also quite good.
- 2024: .193 (94th percentile)
- 2025: .203 (88th percentile)
- 2026: .190 (95th perentile)
Despite giving up some hard contact at times, Glasnow does an excellent job at limiting the damage on said contact.
Having said all this, which teams could weather the injury proneness Glasnow brings — or, at least, would be willing to take a chance on him staying healthy?
Angels
With a new front office and ownership, the Angels could be looking to make a big splash. Ken Rosenthal threw them out as a darkhorse for Skubal, so why wouldn’t they want to take a chance on a high-ceiling Southern California boy to add to a rotation that already has Reid Detmers, Yusei Kikuchi and Walbert Urena? It’d be the type of big swing a new ownership group could make, ala the Dodgers in 2012. The Dodgers are looking for a right-handed-hitting middle infielder, so maybe someone like Oswald Peraza with a reliever like Sam Bachman could be the start of a trade package.
Astros
This feels gross, but after Hunter Brown, the Houston rotation is very much suspect. Maybe Tatsuya Imai bounces back, but the Cristian Javier–Peter Lambert–Hayden Wesneski trio isn’t going to inspire confidence — even in a weakened American League. Perhaps some sort of deal built around Glasnow and Jeremy Pena could work?
Cubs
While they might make the most sense for Skubal, they won’t be in on him. Glasnow could be a nice consolation prize, seeing as they’re looking to add velocity to their starting rotation, especially with Ben Brown set to undergo neck surgery. I’m just not sure how much the Dodgers would want to help a potential NL pennant contender, though. If so, they could target right-handed reliever Porter Hodge (currently recovering from Tommy John surgery) and maybe switch-hitting infielder Pedro Ramirez (though, the Cubs might not be too keen on trading him). Nico Hoerner would be interesting, but they probably value him more than Glasnow.
Guardians
Cleveland is always strong in their pitching department and already have a great 1-2 punch in Gavin Williams and Parker Messick. Introducing Glasnow as a mid-rotation guy could help them get over the hump in the American League. They’re, reportedly, looking to increase payroll, so Glasnow’s salary may not be as big an obstacle as it might seem. If the Dodgers still needed an outfielder, perhaps some sort of Glasnow/Steven Kwan deal could have made sense. If not, maybe a deal built around Daniel Espino and Angel Genao could be fleshed out. Of course, the Guardians are always looking for help on offense, so I’m not sure how much Glasnow helps there.
Nationals
A surprise inclusion here, as the Nats have a strong, young core that’s lacking veteran presence in the rotation. Anything to get Jake Irvin out of said rotation. A 1-2-3 of Cade Cavalli-Glasnow-Connelly Early could do some work in the NL East. CJ Abrams would be an interesting target, but the Nationals might hold onto him. Will Dion and his Alex Vesia-ish 4-seamer could be of some interest, too.
White Sox
This feels a bit less likely, even though the Pale Hose could use rotation help. They acquired Luis Castillo at the trade deadline last season and his best days are very clearly behind him. However, the White Sox took on all the money remaining in the deal (roughly $30 million through 2027) and we know how notoriously cheap owner Jerry Reinsdorf has been in the past — I’m allowed to say that when the largest contract the Chicago White Sox have given out has been 5-year, $75 million deal they gave to Andrew Benintendi. Adding Glasnow to Sean Burke, Davis Martin and Grant Taylor could make the White Sox even more interesting than they were last season. A bigger problem might be fit, as the White Sox don’t have a lot of who the Dodgers might want in such a deal. Middle infield prospect Kyle Lodise could make sense, but he’s far from being a headliner in a Glasnow deal.
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All this is to say, Glasnow is a valuable pitcher. He might be too valuable to the Dodgers to trade. Or they might not get what they deem as an acceptable return anyway. The production he provides, due to not usually being around an entire season, might not be enough for most teams to tolerate. If a team trades for him, they’d be expecting him to be a No. 2/3 starter who’s going to qualify for the ERA title — at least, that’s what his stuff and salary would suggest.
If the Dodgers were to trade Glasnow with their sights set on re-signing Skubal, that’d make sense. They could re-sign Skubal anyway and keep Glasnow, or just not re-sign Skubal. But I don’t see them trading Glasnow just to trade him if they don’t have Skubal or someone like Freddy Peralta or Trevor Rogers in the plans. At the same time, it’s hard to ignore his name coming up in trade rumors for a second consecutive offseason.
