Former Butler baseball and Westfield pitcher Ryan Pepiot reached the Major Leagues on the strength of his 95 mph fastball and a changeup that fools lefties and righties alike.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound righty has an ideal pitcher's frame, but it's his work ethic, dating back to his days with the Shamrocks, and dedication to his craft that helped him reach baseball's biggest stage.
Grinding through football workouts as Westfield's starting quarterback, he also was preparing to be an ace on the mound. Pepiot dedicated himself to getting better each day and that approach didn't change after an offseason trade sent him across the country from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Tampa Bay Rays. In fact, Pepiot quickly learned to thrive with his new organization and the former two-sport star heads into his third MLB season poised for a breakout.
"Knowing some guys that were on the (Tampa Bay Rays) already or had played for the Rays, once the trade happened, they were all happy for me," Pepiot said. "They're all like, 'Hey, you're going to a great spot.' The people are amazing. The guys are great. And all the collective staff, whether it's the strength and conditioning department, the clubhouse attendees, the food guys, trainers, pitching staff, all that goes into the front office, everybody that was involved has been fantastic. The past year has been a huge blessing and one of the best things to happen for my career was getting traded in Tampa.
"We're all relatively the same age, relatively around the same amount of time in the league. For me, having Shane Baz and Taj (Bradley) just being able to have a couple guys that you're going through the early parts of your career together. You got people to lean on, that you can ask questions to, see what they're thinking, watch them go about their business, taking things that they do and adding it into my game as well."
Pepiot credits the Rays with helping him become a better pro, but his preparation for the daily grind of Division I baseball and MLB started when he was in high school at Westfield. Playing in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference, Pepiot faced some of the best teams in the state, multiple times a week. When Pepiot played in the HCC, conference matchups were three-games series, allowing teams to really learn each other's tendencies, adding more strategy to each game in an effort to gain an advantage.
"Thinking back to at least my junior and senior year, every team in the (HCC) had at least three guys in their starting lineup that were playing Division I baseball," Pepiot said. "So, that obviously prepared us, playing really, really good competition, and the conference as a whole, was a gauntlet. Then you had to go play basically the entire conference in the sectional. And it always seems that whoever wins that sectional ends up getting close to the finals every year."
Pepiot was a two-way standout on the diamond. He didn't have the devastating changeup that allows him rack up Ks as a high-schooler, but the dedication to preparation and attention to detail that makes him a standout starting pitcher in MLB were traits he possessed in high school.
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"Ryan was a grinder, even in high school. He's a hard worker. He was a two-sport athlete," Westfield baseball coach Ryan Bunnell said. "He played football for us, he was a quarterback and that, to a degree, prepared him (for the next level). He would do our workouts, and he was also doing football workouts, so the grind for him in the offseason was particularly grinding.
"He always showed up. He never missed. It was never an issue and when he showed up, he worked. He was a guy that put in work, worked hard in the weight room, worked hard in practice and I think he did show professionalism at an early age. He was really good about his routine and stuck to those routines. He figured out what worked for him, and I know that's evolved through the years, but the roots of his routines today, I'm sure, go all the way back to high school."
The Los Angeles Dodgers made Pepiot the highest drafted player out of Butler, selecting him 102nd overall in the 2019 MLB Draft. His debut season went well, recording a 1.93 ERA over 23 ⅓ innings between rookie ball and low single-A. The righty seemed poised for a breakout 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the minor league baseball season.
Pepiot began the 2022 season in the minors before making his MLB debut May 11, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, throwing three scoreless innings of one-hit baseball, striking out three and walking five. Pepiot made nine appearances (seven starts) for the Dodgers as a rookie, finishing with 3.47 ERA over 36 ⅓ innings. Once again, Pepiot seemed poised for a breakout, but an oblique strain suffered during his final spring training start delayed his 2023 season. Pepiot made just three starts for the Dodgers in 2023, but he continued to pitch well, finishing with a 2.14 ERA over 42 innings.
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Heading into his second full season as a pro, Pepiot was ready to finally fulfill his potential and clinch a spot in the Dodgers rotation, but life threw another wrench at him. While out to dinner with his Dodgers teammates in December, Pepiot learned he was being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. Pepiot said the Dodgers let him know the trade was possible and when it finally happened, he took it in stride. The only thing that changed for him was his location, his preparation for the 2024 season stayed the same.
"The only preparation that changed was just kind of the logistics of where I was working out," Pepiot said. "When I was with the Dodgers, I worked out at the Dodger spring training facility in Arizona and (I was) living in Arizona. After (getting traded) I had to go to one of my buddy's houses who had a gym in his garage. Then I ended up coming to Florida, to the Tampa/St. Pete area in early January for the rest of the offseason, to kind of get acclimated with the staff and the area and then figure out where I was going to live for the season."
Pepiot took to Tampa Bay and the Rays organization quickly. Joining a rotation filled with young and talented arms like two-time All-Star Shane McClanahan, and former top prospects Taj Bradley and Shane Baz, Pepiot put together his most complete season yet. The former Butler Bulldog made 26 starts in 2024, recording an 8-8 with a 3.60 ERA and 142 strikeouts over 130 ⅔ innings.
Pepiot doesn't take for granted how fortunate he is to go from one analytically inclined organization to another. Both the Dodgers and Rays are lauded for their proficiency in player development, but the Rays are especially known to get the best out of their pitchers.
The latest challenge to Pepiot's preparation is the Rays' change in home stadium. When Hurricane Milton tore the roof off of Tropicana Field in October, the Rays were forced to make Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees spring training home, their temporary home for the 2025 regular season. Steinbrenner Field is a replica of Yankee Stadium, meaning the short right field fence (314 feet) is always a target for pull-happy lefties. As a right-handed pitcher, Pepiot will face his share of talented lefties, but he's taking a look at the bigger picture to put any potential challenges in perspective.
"The dimensions of the field are the dimensions of the field," Pepiot said. "Really, the biggest difference is there's no roof (at Steinbrenner Field). You're gonna have wind factors. You're not gonna have 70 degrees or whatever the inside of The Trop was every single day. We knew there was never gonna be a rain out. We knew there was never gonna be a delayed game. ... It's gonna be interesting. It'll be a little different. I'm probably gonna start sitting in the sun a little bit more to prepare myself for the heat.
"But really, it's just baseball. We pick it up and play wherever we have to. ... I'm just thankful that we have a place to play in the Tampa Bay area, but I also feel for the people that lost a lot more than we did. Our team is not the most important thing in the whole city. I think it's the people that are around it, and I just have to put that in the right perspective. ... There's other people that have it way worse than we do."