{"id":22802,"date":"2026-03-06T09:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=22802"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:12:20","slug":"ryan-pepiot-talks-st-petersburg-tropicana-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=22802","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Pepiot talks St. Petersburg, Tropicana Field"},"content":{"rendered":"


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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — As a team and an organization, the Rays are thrilled about returning to Tropicana Field this season after spending last year outside at George M. Steinbrenner Field.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But you might not find anyone in Tampa Bay\u2019s clubhouse who is more excited about getting back to the Trop than Ryan Pepiot<\/a>.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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After a season in which he seemed to draw an inordinate number of the club\u2019s sweltering early-afternoon starts at Steinbrenner Field, he\u2019s ready to get back under the tilted roof, where it\u2019s 72 degrees at first pitch no matter the day or time.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI’ll tell you what, I cannot wait for air conditioning and my mound — not my mound, but the mound,\u201d Pepiot said, smiling. \u201cI love the Trop. I know some people don’t like it. I love it. It’s fantastic.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pepiot\u2019s unironic appreciation for the Rays\u2019 home dome is just one way in which the 28-year-old right-hander has come to embrace the Tampa Bay area, the city of St. Petersburg, the Rays and their fans as he enters his third season with the team.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pepiot had no connection to the area before the Rays acquired him and Jonny DeLuca from the Dodgers in the December 2023 trade for Tyler Glasnow. He\u2019d visited the Tampa Bay area for spring break in high school, and he went to a game at the Trop during one of those trips. But he was born and raised in Indiana, went to college at Butler, debuted for Los Angeles and spent his winters in Arizona to be closer to the Dodgers\u2019 Spring Training complex.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then came the trade. Pepiot and his wife, Lilia, had to decide whether to relocate. They thought about the impracticality of maintaining three residences, but they planned to rent in St. Petersburg and keep their place in Arizona.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then they spent a little time in St. Petersburg.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cTwo days later, my wife’s like, ‘All right, we can move here,\u2019\u201d Pepiot recalled.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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After Pepiot\u2019s first season with the Rays, they bought a condo near the waterfront in downtown St. Pete. It\u2019s become their year-round home, complete with a view of Tropicana Field.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI love St. Pete. I feel like I wake up on vacation every single day, and I get to work in the vacation spot,\u201d Pepiot said. \u201cThere’s something therapeutic about the water every day. Being able to walk downtown and hit all my coffee shops, hit all my lunch spots and my dinner spots. I have my places where people know who I am, and they say hi.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe people are just nice. And there’s just so many good causes around the area to support. I know how much people have given to the Rays, and I want to give back to them.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He\u2019s done exactly that, quickly becoming one of the more public-facing representatives of the team while also establishing himself as a reliable source of quality innings in the starting rotation.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI try to do everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the offseason, they always ask, \u2018Hey, would you d\u2013\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m there.\u2019\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When it came time for the Capital One MLB Open<\/a> in November, Pepiot represented the Rays alongside David Price. In January, he co-hosted an entire four-hour local sports talk radio show<\/a> on WDAE. When the NHL Stadium Series came to Tampa in January for a matchup between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins, there was Pepiot at Raymond James Stadium alongside Junior Caminero and left-hander Ian Seymour.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI wasn\u2019t missing that,\u201d Pepiot said. \u201cThat was so fun.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pepiot has also leaned into his standing to support charitable work in the community, from taking part in Reading With The Rays and Rays On The Runway events to supporting Feeding Tampa Bay, the Ronald McDonald House and GiGi\u2019s Playhouse Tampa.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And when the Rays hosted their annual Fan Fest<\/a> outside Tropicana Field last month, with players coming and going from camp in shifts, Pepiot spent the entire day participating in various events. That culminated with a stage show alongside DeLuca and brand engagement executive<\/a> Brett Phillips.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With his words and actions, Pepiot has made it clear: There\u2019s no place he\u2019d rather be.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Rays took a big chance on me, put a lot of faith in me to come in and do what I have been able to do the last two years,\u201d Pepiot said. \u201cThe belief they have and the personability the whole staff has in just embracing me and letting me be myself, I want to give back to that. Not just the team, but the city of St. Pete, the people of St. Pete.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s a really good place to live,\u201d he added, \u201cand the Trop is a great place to pitch.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — As a team and an organization, the Rays are thrilled about returning to Tropicana Field this season after spending last year outside at George M. Steinbrenner Field. But you might not find anyone in Tampa Bay\u2019s clubhouse who is more excited about getting back to the Trop than Ryan Pepiot. After … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ryan-Pepiot-talks-St-Petersburg-Tropicana-Field.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22804,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802\/revisions\/22804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}