Ryan Tepera

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Dennis Ryan Tepera

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Biographical Information[edit]

Ryan Tepera is a relief pitcher who made his major league debut for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015. After shuttling between Toronto and the minor leagues his first two seasons, he became a fixture in the Jays' bullpen in 2017, when he pitched 73 games and went 7-1, 3.59 with 2 saves. However, in spite of not spending the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons up north, he played in the postseason both years, with one appearance in the 2015 ALCS and another in the 2016 ALDS. In 2018, he had another good year, going 5-5, 3.62 with 7 saves in 68 appearances as the Blue Jays fell from playoff contention. 2019 was a rough year, however, as injuries limited him to 23 games at the major league level, going 0-2, 4.98, being out of action from late May to September. He made the first start of his career that year, as an opener against the Baltimore Orioles on September 17th.

He was released by the Blue Jays following the 2019 season and signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs for 2020. After starting the year at the team's alternate training site, he was called up a few days later and made 21 appearances, going 0-1, 3.92. He returned to the postseason with one outing in the Cubs' loss to the Miami Marlins in the Wild Card Series. In spite of these unremarkable numbers, he received one 10th-place vote for the MVP Award. It turned out it was a mistake, however, as the voter, former St. Louis Cardinals beat writer Rick Hummel, had intended to vote for Trea Turner but mistakenly selected the wrong name on the electronic ballot's drop-down menu. He only realized his mistake after his ballot was submitted, so the vote was considered valid, and it sparked a lot of on-line incredulity before the explanation was made public.

He was again in the news for strange reasons on April 15, 2021, when he was issued a three-game suspension for throwing at Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff two days earlier. What was unusual was that the offense would likely have gone unpunished, were it not for his catcher, Willson Contreras, confessing in a post-game interview that this was the Cubs' intent. Manager David Ross was also suspended for one game for supposedly ordering the pitch, although Contreras escaped retribution, even though it seems he was the one who called for the pitch, after having hit by one of Woodruff's pitches earlier in the game. On June 24, 2021, he was one of four Cubs pitchers to combine on a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Zach Davies pitched the first six innings, Tepera took care of the 7th, and Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel took care of the final two innings to complete the work. The Cubs were doing well at that point but completely collapsed after the no-hitter, falling well off the pace in the NL Central. They therefore became sellers at the trading deadline, unloading one asset after another. First to go was LF Joc Pederson, who was followed by Chafin, and Ryan was next on July 29th, when he was sent across town to the Chicago White Sox for minor leaguer Bailey Horn. He was 0-2, 2.91 with 1 save in 43 outings at the time.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Manny Randhawa: "How reliever with 3.92 ERA got an MVP vote", mlb.com, November 12, 2020. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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