Ask Tanner Scott about his origin story as a pitcher, and he’s quick to point out one key detail about where his journey began:
“It no longer exists.”
Last spring, Notre Dame College (Ohio) announced it would be closing its doors due to significant financial challenges after more than a century of academic instruction. Eleven years prior, its baseball team had rostered a hard-throwing lefty who went on to become the only big leaguer in school history.
Today, that hard-throwing lefty is the closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending World Series champions whose presence in the sport’s global landscape is more powerful than ever. He has already notched his first save with his new team, delivering a perfect ninth inning against the Cubs in Game 1 of the Tokyo Series. The four-year, $72 million deal Scott agreed to in January is the fifth-largest free-agent contract ever secured by a relief pitcher. It was a payday well earned over the previous two seasons, during which Scott ranked at or near the top of the reliever leaderboard by numerous statistical measures.
Today, Scott’s ability is widely renowned. But he had to start somewhere.
“Notre Dame gave me a chance to pitch,” Scott told Yahoo Sports in February of the small Catholic college that used to be located in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.
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‘I just didn’t know how to use my body’
At Howland High School just outside of Youngstown, Scott primarily played outfield. As a self-described “terrible hitter,” his strong left arm earned him occasional cameos on the mound, albeit without much success. “I would try to pitch, and it was not good,” recalled Scott, who received minimal interest as a recruit. But nearby Notre Dame believed his live arm was worth taking a chance on.
Once he arrived on campus, Scott’s velocity crept up as hoped; his fastball touched 92 mph in his freshman season as a Falcon. But his control was untenable. His 37 1/3 innings across nine starts featured 44 strikeouts — with 47 walks and nine hit-by-pitches. A 5.54 ERA with extreme wildness against Division II competition wouldn’t seem to portend a long and successful professional career. But it turned out to be a fitting start to Scott’s decade-long quest to translate his rare physical ability into consistent run prevention.
The numbers weren’t pretty at Notre Dame. But the reality is, southpaws with serious velocity don’t grow on trees. And when he pitched the following summer for the Cincinnati-based Midland baseball program that has produced dozens of big leaguers, Scott’s heater climbed to 94 mph. He got an offer to go play at Howard College, a strong junior college program in west Texas, and he decided to take the leap.
“That’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done,” Scott said of his decision to leave Ohio for a new challenge after just one season. At Howard, Scott started to understand how much better he could get — and how much harder he could throw — by upgrading his movements on the mound.
“I learned how to actually use pitching mechanics instead of just throwing,” he explained. “I just didn’t know how to use my body.”
Although Scott’s control remained shoddy (6.64 BB/9), his overall effectiveness saw a notable uptick with the Hawks, as his four-seamer soared to 97 mph and his ERA plummeted to 2.66 across 61 innings. During his lone season at Howard, he emerged as one of the top junior college prospects in the 2014 MLB Draft and was ultimately selected in the sixth round by Baltimore. He signed with the Orioles in June, and by September, a little more than two years removed from scraping 90 mph as a part-time high school pitcher, Scott was touching triple digits as a professional.
Tanner Scott vs. Shohei Ohtani
A decade later, Scott is still touching triple digits as one of baseball’s premier relievers. But en route to landing his lucrative deal to join a historically star-studded Dodgers roster, Scott’s development mostly took place out of the spotlight. The Orioles finished in last more often than not during his tenure. Then he was the closer for the 93-loss Marlins in 2022, his first taste of game-ending duties after years of showcasing closer-like stuff without closer-like consistency. Scott’s career continued to trend favorably as an individual, but he was flourishing on losing clubs.
More recently, however, Scott’s gradual ascent has garnered attention as he has starred for postseason teams. Although he shared ninth-inning responsibilities with A.J. Puk in 2023, Scott led all relievers in fWAR, contributing to Miami’s stunning surge to October and helping cement his status as one of the most dominant late-game weapons in MLB. Scott’s profile was amplified further last summer, when he was one of the bigger names traded at the deadline to a San Diego team in the thick of a playoff race.
As a Padre, Scott made an impression on his future employer. He had thrived against the Dodgers with Miami, but that was far different than taking them on in the context of one of baseball’s fiercest rivalries. In San Diego’s victory over the Dodgers on Sept. 24, which shrunk Los Angeles’ division lead to two games, Scott pitched a scoreless seventh inning punctuated by a three-pitch strikeout of Shohei Ohtani. Two nights later, Scott again entered in the seventh in a tie game and this time had a rare misstep, allowing three runs on three hits, including the go-ahead knock from Ohtani. The Dodgers won 7-2 and clinched the NL West crown.
“For us to get to [Tanner] Scott was a big message,” manager Dave Roberts said on the radio the next day, acknowledging the then-rival reliever’s outsized importance.
A couple of weeks later, the Dodgers prevailed against the Padres again in the NLDS — but not before Scott exacted some individual revenge. He delivered four scoreless outings in the series, all four of which featured a strikeout of Ohtani.
Tanner Scott was Shohei Ohtani’s kryptonite. But now, they are teammates. pic.twitter.com/NIKw1g8SnN
— Peyton | BigLeagueAnalysis (@bsblwithpeyton) January 19, 2025
Scott’s tremendous showing in the NLDS wasn’t enough to help the Padres advance, but it did provide an emphatic conclusion to a remarkable season that primed him to cash in considerably in free agency. And with the Dodgers boasting the league’s deepest pockets and an unwavering appetite for elite talent, Scott emerged as a logical target for L.A.
As the saying goes: If you can’t beat ‘em, give ‘em a whole bunch of money to join you.
‘He’s just got a different kind of engine’
In joining the Dodgers, Scott got the opportunity to reunite with one of his best friends in baseball in fellow reliever Evan Phillips. Not long after making his MLB debut with Atlanta, Phillips was traded to Baltimore at the 2018 deadline, joining the Orioles franchise in the depths of their rebuild. Over the next three years, he and Scott grew close as they both worked to solidify themselves as big-league relievers, if even on a very bad team. They lived together in Florida leading up to the shortened 2020 season, bonding during a time of uncertainty. Their then-fiancées, now-wives grew close as well, with Scott serving as a groomsman in Phillips’ wedding.
It wasn’t until after they both departed Baltimore that the duo blossomed into the high-leverage arms they are today. The two stayed in close contact as Scott thrived in Miami and Phillips found another gear in L.A., with Phillips occasionally sharing how much he loves being a Dodger. Once Scott reached the open market, however, his friend was mindful of respecting the free-agent process.
“We talked here and there throughout the offseason, but we never really dove deep into what it would be like to be teammates again,” Phillips said. “It was a big decision for him and his family.”
That said, Phillips would’ve appreciated a heads-up once it was clear that a reunion was in store.
“When the news broke that he signed, I was kind of mad he didn’t text me first,” Phillips admitted. “That’s kind of the nature of how he is — he’s more of a low-key guy. But the group chat we have with his wife and my wife was certainly buzzing after that.”
Now the two are back in the same bullpen, affording Phillips a front-row seat to watch the star pitcher Scott has become and beginning a new chapter for them as teammates.
“He would flash it in Baltimore — he would strike out two guys on six pitches and then walk the next one on four,” Phillips said, describing the roller-coaster ride that Scott so often rode before he harnessed his stuff more consistently.
“I think things really came into form with San Diego,” he added. “You saw him take another step on a winning team. And that’s the kind of dominance he can present. To watch that growth from afar was really awesome.”
For Phillips, having known the more unrefined version of Scott in the early stages of his career, witnessing his glow-up has been especially rewarding. At the same time, it doesn’t come as that much of a surprise, considering Scott’s uncommon ability to light up the radar gun from the left side. “He’s just got a different kind of engine,” Phillips said.
As commonplace as high-90s heat has become across baseball, the number of southpaws capable of touching triple digits remains an ultra-exclusive club. It’s a group that has been headlined by Aroldis Chapman for the past decade, with only a handful of new entrants demonstrating such heat each season. In 2024, Scott’s four-seamer averaged 97 mph, the fifth-highest mark among left-handers with at least 1,000 pitches thrown. He has thrown 12 pitches in excess of 100 mph as a big leaguer, the most recent of which came against Ohtani in the postseason.
“The physicality he brings, he looks like a strong safety,” Phillips said of Scott, whose older brother, Tyler, was a defensive lineman in college. “He’s got a bit of a football background … and that kind of intensity he brings to the mound.”
It’s that combination of relief firepower and dominating demeanor that made Scott such an alluring free agent, even as a reliever without a lengthy track record of closing games. His 55 career saves at the time of his deal pale in comparison to the gaudy totals compiled by other elite closers who commanded massive free-agent contracts, such as Chapman, Edwin Díaz, Josh Hader and Kenley Jansen. But the Dodgers didn’t hesitate to declare Scott the most likely in their loaded bullpen to receive the bulk of the save opportunities, a reflection of their confidence that he’s ready for the high-stakes role.
For years, Scott’s focus has been on turning his high-end stuff into high-end results, an ongoing odyssey of individual development. But now, as a key cog on baseball’s super-team, his results carry more weight than ever. After proving his postseason mettle against the Dodgers in October, Scott will be tasked with delivering on their behalf when the games matter most.
“It’s just applying it on a championship team, right? It’s one thing to have those goals, but to try to be a part of it year in, year out … ” Phillips said. “On a team like this, you know you want to be at your best and be bulletproof when the time comes.”