My Two Cents: Indiana Native Ryan Pepiot Eases My Annual Basketball to Baseball Transition

It's time to do my Indiana-to-Florida work switch, and the first person I see in the Tampa Bay Rays' locker room is Indianapolis native Ryan Pepiot. He's pitching on Thursday. Here's my first post-basketball column of the summer.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's a simple rule in business, and in life. When you are fortunate enough to have golden opportunities, you make the most of what you've got. The absolute most to be great.

For me, during my five-plus years as a publisher and writer with our talented Sports Illustrated FanNation network, I do the bounce. I cover college basketball while based in chilly Indiana during the winter, then move to Florida for the steamy summer to coordinate all of our major-league baseball coverage from the Tampa Bay area.

I'm the very rare ''reverse snowbird.''

The fortunate part is that I can be lucky enough — or crazy enough — to cover Indiana, Purdue and Big Ten basketball from November to April, and then flip a switch and write baseball from April to November. There is very little overlap, but it's still very much two full-time jobs (out of my four.)

Which makes it a great gig for me.

Wednesday was switch-flipping day for me this year, at long last. Covering Purdue in the Final Four in Arizona added a bit of overlap this year, and six days there with all of my Purdue peeps followed by a couple of days of meetings on the way home pushed me into mid-April. I got two nights in my own bed, then it was off to Florida.

The first stop on my Summer of Tom 2024 baseball tour was my old stomping grounds, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. I added to my media empire here in 2022 when I covered the Rays for a full season, and I had a blast. Covering baseball every day — don't let anyone tell you that 162 games plus the postseason isn't a massive grind — was something I've always wanted to do in my career, and it went well.

We aslo launched our Fastball on FanNation breaking news site that same year and now, after some growing pains, it is flourishing. It's one of the largest entities in our 140-site platform, and I appreciate you all supporting our MLB breaking news site so well.

With the overlap comes connections. In 2022, the Rays player I spent the most time chatting with was center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, who is a Fort Wayne, Ind. native and a huge Purdue basketball fan. He almost played baseball there too, committing before deciding to turn pro. Nearly every day that entire summer was spent with at least a few minutes of chatting about what was going on with his beloved Boilermakers.

Kiermaier is gone now — he plays with the Toronto Blue Jays but I'm really hoping to catch up with him in Philadelphia or Baltimore in May — but I still got my Indiana connection on Wednesday with Rays starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot. The first guy who was available to the media was Pepiot, the Indianapolis native who went to Westfield High School north of town and pitched collegiately at Butler, where he's the school's all-time strikeouts leader and highest MLB draft pick ever there, picked in the third round in 2019.

Ah, the ties that bind.

Pepiot is starting Thursday's game for the Rays against the Los Angeles Angels (1:10 p.m. ET), and it's tradition that the starting pitcher chats the day before. Pepiot did his thing for four or five minutes in previewing the game and his season on the mound so far, and then later I got to introduce myself and share our Indiana connections.

He was happy to hear my Final Four stories and Purdue's run to the national title game, because as a proud Westfield High School grad, he was thrilled for Purdue point guard Braden Smith, who went to Westfield, too. Pepiot was a three-sport star at Westfield himself, playing football, basketball and baseball, and was even a Class 5A All-State quarterback as a senior in 2015.

"Being a Westfield guy, he's been fun to watch. He's done us proud,'' Pepiot said. "Obviously I'm a little older than him — (Pepiot is 26, Smith will be 21 in July) — and I don't really know him, but it was great to see a Westfield guy do so well.''

Pepiot is doing pretty well himself. He came over to the Rays in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the offseason. The small-market Rays moved on from popular starter Tyler Glasnow because they couldn't afford him, so getting big younger pieces in return was critical.

Pepiot was one of the pieces. He's a mainstay in the Rays' rotation now, and Glasnow — who signed a five-year, $136-million contract with the Dodgers after the trade — is doing fine, too, posting a 3-1 record in five starts with an MLB-leading 34 strikeouts.

Pepiot is 1-2 in his three starts, with a 5.40 ERA. He's done a lot of good things, but he's been hurt by three home runs that have stacked his numbers a bit. He has 20 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings. He lost his first and third starts, but in his second — a win at Colorado — he pitched six scoreless innings and allowed just three hits while striking out 11.

It's just a matter of being more consistent now, and he's excited for his fourth start on Thursday against an Angels team that's been playing pretty well right now.

"The good has been filling the zone and attacking guys and getting ahead (of hitters) early and putting guys away,'' Pepiot said. "The homers, I know on a 2-2 pitch, I just missed and got it too much of the plate. ''

The Rays, who are missing standout starters Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs this season due to arm injuries, are 10-9 so far.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said he's liked what he's seen from Rays starters so far, including Pepiot. “I thought his last start was really good,” Cash said. “He's a young guy that we are thrilled with where he’s at.”

Pepiot gave up two home runs in his last start, which has been an issue so far for the entire Rays pitching staff. Rays pitchers had allowed 29 homers overall through Wednesday night — a 5-4 loss to the Angels — tied for the worst in baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays.

“We’re getting clipped by the home run ball a little bit and it’s putting some runs on the board,” Cash said prior to Wednesday's game. “But if you look at the overall body of work, whether it’s a five-, six-, seven-inning start, we’re really doing a nice job. We’re pitching efficiently. We’re getting our strikeouts. We’re making big pitches when we need to.”