A lot has changed since the first time Tyler Glasnow was traded.

He overhauled his arsenal, cleaned up his mechanics and reined in what seemed to be entirely untenable control issues. He defied the skeptics who pegged him as a reliever and established himself as a viable big-league starting pitcher. He hurt his elbow and missed five months. He pitched in a World Series during a pandemic. He hurt his elbow again and got Tommy John surgery, missing a whole year. He rehabbed and returned as one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers.

The past half-decade of ups and downs prepared Glasnow for the latest plot twist in his career: an offseason trade from the small-market, underdog Tampa Bay Rays to the big-budget L.A. Dodgers — the center of the baseball universe — followed by a four-year, $111.5 million extension. In turn, Glasnow’s inaugural days in Dodger blue came with a vastly different mindset than when the Pirates traded him to the Rays in the summer of 2018, a few weeks before his 25th birthday.

“Well, I sucked with Pittsburgh,” Glasnow told Yahoo Sports, ever so bluntly. “So that was the difference.”

He went on: “I wasn’t at a confidence high” arriving in Tampa Bay. “I was just like, ‘I hope I do well.’”