Ricky Vanasco (born October 13, 1998 in Morriston, FL) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2024. According to geneanet.org and Forebears, the surname Vanasco hails from Italy (Genova, Palermo) by way of Argentina. Ricky is also listed as Italian American by the Italian American Baseball Foundation.

Vanasco committed to Stetson University, and was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 15th round, with the 464th overall selection, of the 2017 MLB draft.  Ricky made his professional debut in 2017 with the AZL Rangers of the Rookie-level Arizona League, going 0–1 with a 0.00 ERA and 16 strikeouts over 9 innings. His season was cut short when on August 31, he was struck in the head by a throw from his catcher Sam Huff. He suffered a concussion and missed the rest of the 2017 season.

He was shut down for the much of the 2018 season on July 24 after developing elbow inflammation that required rehabilitation. Ricky split the 2019 season between the Spokane Indians of the Low–A Northwest League and the Hickory Crawdads of the Single–A South Atlantic League, going a combined 3–1 with a 1.81 ERA and 75 strikeouts over 49+2⁄3 innings. He was named a 2019 Northwest League All-Star.  Ricky did not play in a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the Minor League Baseball season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he underwent Tommy John Surgery in September 2020 after suffering an injury at the Rangers Alternate Training Site. Vanasco spent 2021 recovering from surgery, only returning to game action in the organizational fall instructional league.

On June 1, 2023, Vanasco was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Luis Valdez. He pitched in 20 games for Tulsa with a 1–4 record and 1.52 ERA and five games for the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, where he did not allow a run in 5+1⁄3 innings. He returned to Oklahoma City to begin the 2024 season but was called up to the majors for the first time on April 15. He pitched two scoreless innings that night in his debut against the Washington Nationals and recorded his first major league strikeout of Riley Adams.

(excerpted from Wikipedia, BR Bullpen, Baseball Almanac)