The White Sox will promote right-hander Dane Dunning to make his MLB debut for Wednesday’s game against the Tigers, manager Rick Renteria announced after last night’s game (Twitter link via James Fegan of The Athletic). General manager Rick Hahn strongly implied as much earlier this week. It’ll make for an exciting pitching matchup that provides a glimpse into the future for both clubs. The Tigers will throw 2018 No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize for the first time this afternoon.
Dunning, 25, doesn’t draw the same prospect fanfare as Mize, but he’s a highly touted righty himself who has long been considered a top prospect. Selected by the Nationals with the No. 29 overall pick back in 2016, Dunning found himself on the move to the White Sox (alongside Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez) in the trade that shipped Adam Eaton to the Nationals. That trade came just a day after the ChiSox sent Chris Sale to the Red Sox in exchange for a package headlined by Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech at the ’16 Winter Meetings, effectively marking the point of no return in Chicago’s arduous rebuilding process.
Now, with Moncada taking a starring role and numerous other promising young talents bubbling up to the Majors, the rebuild is coming full circle. Dunning becomes the latest reinforcement to join the fray. He hasn’t pitched in a regular-season game since 2018 due to Tommy John surgery, but prior to going under the knife, he was a top-100 caliber talent himself. The former Florida Gator has pitched in parts of three professional seasons (not including his work in intrasquad games at Chicago’s alternate site this year) and compiled an excellent 2.74 ERA with 10.2 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.6 HR/9 in 266 frames.
Dunning has yet to pitch in Triple-A thanks to the absence of a minor league season in 2020, but he topped out as a 23-year-old in Double-A back in ’18 and more than held his own: 62 innings with a 2.76 ERA and an even better 2.40 FIP. Dunning routinely generates big ground-ball numbers, misses bats and demonstrates above-average control. He doesn’t have the type of power arsenal that leads scouts to project him as a front-of-the-rotation presence, but a healthy Dunning could be a third or fourth starter for the ChiSox down the road.
For the time being, Dunning will step into a starting staff that is currently without the aforementioned Lopez (shoulder strain) and lefty Carlos Rodon (shoulder soreness). Given Lopez’s struggles as a starter, Rodon’s durability issues and the fact that Gio Gonzalez is on a one-year deal, there’s ample opportunity for Dunning to work his way into the long-term rotation outlook — beginning today. If he’s in the big leagues for good, Dunning has likely spent enough time in the minors this year that the White Sox have avoided Super Two status. He can’t accrue a full year of service at this point, either, so the White Sox could control him through at least the 2026 season.
Probably one of the only good things about this shortened season is the expanded rosters. The amount of ML debuts this year has been awesome for the game to see so many young stars, whereas you probably wouldn’t have seen many this season had it been a full 162 game season. Another chip to the White Sox rebuilding puzzle is making his debut, and I’m stoked to see how Dunning does
Dane Dunning will be the 9th White Sox player to make his MLB debut in 2020 per my pals at FutureSox: twitter.com/FutureSox/status/1295916049490206720. In addition to this list of debuts, the organization also called up LHP prospect Bernardo Flores Jr. as their 29th player for a doubleheader this past weekend versus the Cardinals but the southpaw never made it into either game before being optioned back to their alternate training site.
Odds are decent that Dunning won’t be the final White Sox prospect to make his MLB debut in 2020 either, especially if the team continues on its current pace to advance to the postseason. It’s possible that 1B Andrew Vaughn might see a promotion in September along with their top 2020 June Draft pick Garrett Crochet.
I really hope not on Crochet and Vaughn, tbh. No reason to rush, considering they’re still behind both the Indians and Twins and would be hoping for a WC in a normal season. With Vaughn, especially, there’s already a logjam at 1B/DH, with AB’s divided between Abreu, EE, McCann/Grandal (whichever isn’t catching), and Collins. Let McCann go elsewhere after this year (or trade him at the deadline), cut ties with EE, then bring up Vaughn next year at the earliest. He takes first and Abreu takes DH, with Collins getting some time at DH or both.
Promoting Andrew Vaughn is less likely unless there is an injury issue with 1B Jose Abreu or if DH Edwin Encarnacion continues struggling in the DH role.
Garrett Crochet would be the more likely addition if the White Sox remain viable postseason contenders like they were in 2010 when the team promoted similarly talented LHP Chris Sale who was their top pick that June and finished the season as a late inning reliever. You might recall that Sale was promoted in August and then shared the closer role in September after Bobby Jenks was injured. Crochet’s lefty power arm could be a welcome addition to the White Sox bullpen if Aaron Bummer is slowed in his return from the IL.
EE as a trade prospect at the deadline?
I’d rather see Crochet than Fry at this point. Don’t see anyway Vaughn gets the call without a plethora of injuries, which judging by how this year has gone so far, is possible.
I also don’t see them being that far behind Cleveland over the course of a season. Cleveland clearly has the pitching, but their offense is non-existent. If you want to factor in the complete disaster that is going on with Clevinger/Plesac, I’d easily take the Sox as the 2nd best team in the division.
They wouldn’t be able to find a taker.
EE smacked 2 HR’s tonight. Bombs!
I think he is just getting warmed up!
Sox only 2 games behind for 1st place.
Such an easy schedule ahead!
One more with Detroit, weekend series with lowly Cubbies, and then Pittsburgh!
I’d say they finish no lower than 2nd place this season.
“lowly Cubbies”? Are these the same lowly Cubbies who have the second best record and run differential in the NL? I think they’re playing a little above their heads, but they certainly aren’t lowly.
EE looked lost at the plate despite hitting 2 bombs. He looked like he was completely guessing and just swinging at anything close to the zone; luckily, he connected on 2. To me, it looked like someone that knew he lost bat speed and was trying to make up for it by guessing and getting his swing started earlier.
I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
Good luck Dane!
Give Sox 5 great innings!
Should be a good game tonight.
Great job, Dane!
Sox kept you in there one pitch too many! Learn from that one mistake.
Mize looked good too.
So he’ll face Mize and the tigers today. Hopefully this game will be on mlb network or fs1 so I can watch it.
Bilassports 😉
Step 1: Buy a firestick. Theyre like $40 or something.
Step 2: Install downloader app and go to blokada . org and download blokada. Turn it on.
Step 3: Install amazon silk browser app.
Step 4: Go to sportshd . me . Blokada will blockada pop-ups. Make sure its active/turned on.
Mlb.tv. firestick. Luckily they’re putting the cubs and cards on mlb network. Unfortunately that means the cubs announcers are probably off. Theres alwags a way to watch.
You should focus on not putting on such a horrible show on Friday.
This ought to be a fun matchup. I hope the Sox can greet Mize as warmly as they did to Skubal. Come on, Timmy, start three games in a row with a HR.
he might not get the play they do but Dunning may end up being better than the Tigers pitchers.
Agree – too many pitchers over hyped. Sox have a kid named Steiver, who going to be a star. He needs a start.
Rick, forget about Rodon and Lopez. Good trade bait.
@keysox, Rodon and Lopez are not good trade bait. Rodon has talent, but can’t stay healthy and Lopez is maddeningly inconsistent. Maybe someone who thinks they can fix him takes him on, but the Sox aren’t going to get a meaningful return for him, unless they completely luck into a lottery ticket that hits.
Assuming low trade value for Rodon and Lopez, I would try them in the bullpen before dumping them. They might not be effective starters, but there is enough talent there that could work better in short stints.
That’s a fine idea, especially with Lopez. Rodon’s injury history makes me leery of even this, but I suppose getting something out of his last couple years is better than nothing.
You never know. I think he ends up being better than Skubal, but I think Manning and Mize will be better than Dunning in the end. Which is fine; those two are supposed to be the 1-2 punch of the future, while Dunning has been thought of as a future 3-4 behind Giolito, Kopech, and maybe Cease. He could be a hell of a #4, though.
I like Dunning but I would have a lot of doubts about him being better than Mize and Manning. He may be better than Skubal.
i dont know what’s the lack of support for Skubal here. i feel he might be the best one, though any order of the 4 wouldnt surprise me.
I like all 4, but I think there is a definite drop in stuff from Manning and Mize to Skubal and Dunning. Manning and Mize have elite stuff, while Skubal reminds me more of Steven Matz or Robbie Ray.
I’ll tell you the Indians could be better then the Chi-Sox, but that doesn’t stop Chicago from being more exciting though. It’s really too bad that Michael Kopech opted out of the season. Chicago is getting close. Thinking next season they could definitely win the division. They should go after James Paxton as a free agent next season especially if he gets his act together and pitches better then he has lately.
Indians’ time is coming to an end because they can’t afford to keep people. Lindor will be gone, J-Ram likely after that. Clevinger has been mentioned as a potential trade chip. They’ll come back, but I think they’re in for a little bit of a rebuild in the next few years.
Dane Dunning is under the radar right now. He was considered to have some of the best control among all pitching prospects before getting TJ Surgery. Dunning could be one of the White Sox most consistent pitchers moving forward. Dont be suprised if he takes the job and runs away with it
This is going to be a fun matchup, I’d love to see this on a big network tonight.
Finally something MLBTV is good for! You know other than those blackout restrictions!
Cubs-Cards blackout is killing me. Fox Sports Midwest showed the Blues playoff game Monday during BOTH games of the doubleheader. Meanwhile, blacked out on MLBtv in my market.
Get a firestick. You can stream any game you want completely free using the silk web browser. Just make sure you install an ad blocker. Find a website that works for you.
You can learn how to do it and what websites to use via YouTube.
White sox have great positional players but have to have one of the worst rotations in the league. Should consider trading for some quality arms.
They have no prospects. Giolito has been somewhat of a bust so far. They didn’t give up anything for him though. So it’s lose lose
I’m increasingly sure, wrek, that you stopped paying any real attention to the White Sox after 2018. Either that, or you’re beyond normal troll level into just plain stupid territory.
That’s not even a good attempt at trolling…
@wrek305
Yes, Giolito has been a bust so far, as evidenced by him finishing 6th in Cy Young voting last year. But what do those moron voters know, they’ve never played the game.
Priggs89 is spot on, that’s a horrible attempt at trolling.
I’d love for them to trade for some pitching help. The problem is that, while they have good players starting at almost every position (never have liked the trade for Mazara), they have little depth. Their OF prospects have stalled and their pitching prospects have been hampered by injuries with Lopez appearing to be a bust,
They could trade Vaughn and then hire a DH after EE leaves (or move Eloy into the role if he can’t learn to field, but then they need a LF), but bat-only guys aren’t going to bring back quality pitching.
My pipe dream is that the Indians become eager to offload Clevinger and become enamored with a guy like Stiever or Dunning and some of their OF prospects. Overall, though, I’d be surprised if they made any significant trades.
Their rotation hasn’t even been close to as bad as you think…
Scouting reports like this annoy me and seem more prevalent in this era of advanced analytics: “He doesn’t have the type of power arsenal that leads scouts to project him as a front-of-the-rotation presence, but a healthy Dunning could be a third or fourth starter for the ChiSox down the road.”
Hah! Tell that to Greg Maddux or even a TOR today like Kyle Hendricks who is now the ace of the Cubs rotation and a pitcher with a similar profile to Dunning.
I’ll grant that a pitcher can be successful without a power arsenal if they know how to pitch and have fantastic location and movement. It’s just much easier if you have that power. Missing your location on a 99mph fastball could still generate a swing and miss. Missing your location on a 92mph fastball could wind up in the seats. And let’s pump the breaks on comparing him to Hendricks, much less Maddux. Mize is more worthy of such comparisons (and even then, not worthy of a Maddux comp yet) because he’s known for how well he knows the art of pitching, in addition to his control. Dunning is unlikely to be as good as Mize and I’d be totally fine with him slotting in as a reliable 3-4 guy.
True enough. It’s also a fact that the White Sox have had many young power arms debut in their rotation the past few years and each one of them has struggled mightily retiring MLB hitters on a consistent basis because they lacked the necessary command to supplement their plus fastballs and sliders. This happened with Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Dylan Cease and may yet occur with Michael Kopech when he returns in 2021. Carson Fulmer might have been another, a former first round pick with strong credentials in college who struggled with his command before the organization finally DFA’d him last month.
The early and in some cases continuing struggles with all of these White Sox power arms is a matter of record. Dane Dunning will now get his chance to impress. I’m guessing (and hoping!) he will have quicker success in the White Sox rotation because of his more advanced command along with some positive tweaking with the grip on his changeup courtesy of catcher Yasmani Grandal during summer camp.
Being a die hard Tigers fan but also someone who has admired the White Sox rebuild from afar, I cant wait to see these guys square off today. Regardless of what we see, neither one will be as good (or as bad in Tarik Skubal’s case) as they show. I’m sure both will be fighting off nerves and the fact that unlike every other year where you’d have parents, family and friends in the stands rooting you on, this will be a much different kind of debut. But regardless it should be fun to see what we have in Mize and for you all to finally see what Dunning can do.
As a White Sox fan, I’ve been wanting to see Mize in the big leagues since he was drafted. While I hope he sucks when he faces the Sox (can you blame me?), I hope that he otherwise lives up to the hype.
Many schools were waiting on ND to see if ANY campus could hold down the virus. Sure enough ND traced two outbreaks back to parties without masks. No campus is expected to convince young people that they must wear masks when partying.
This also means the virus will be with us in 2021.
If ND can not resume classes in 2 weeks you can forget any idea of the NFL or MLB letting fans attend games.
MLB then has to give serious consideration to a “training league.”
What makes Schaumburg special is that the WSox can move players down & up from it with no fear of them having to clear waivers. They are ready to go the day the decision is made. That wasn’t the case even when players stayed back in AZ. If they standardize it then they can build a league out of it & watch their future call ups compete vs other teams.
I’m sure the village of Schaumburg would love to host competitive WSox training games.
As for this year, Garcia’s loss is the most damaging & the WSox need to make a deal to replace his utility value.
I’m not aware of any future call up that can replace him.
I’m wondering if Kopech can opt back in if the WSox can solidify their playoff spot.
I think Rodon will return & get the job done. His baseball future is at stake.
As long as he’s still due to get another start in Aug, I think the WSox can hold off trading for another starter.
As far as I know, you can’t opt back in once you’ve opted out.
I disagree on Garcia’s loss being most damaging. It hurts, but losing TA sucked because he’s a sparkplug and losing Madrigal hurt because of the defense and time to adjust. The Sox have good position players starting at nearly every spot, but have little depth behind them. That makes them feel a loss like Garcia more, but only if they first feel the loss of that starter.
Lastly, I disagree on Rodon. He has talent, sure, but he’s never seemed fully healthy and I don’t think he ever will be at this point. Future at stake or not, you can’t command your shoulder and elbow to hold together.
@hyraxwithaflamethrower
Apparently you can opt back in if you were considered high risk for COVID-19 when you opted out. A player did just that not too long ago, and I wish I could remember which player it was.
I don’t think Kopech is allowed to, unless he’s able to convince someone he was high risk, which I don’t think he was when he opted out. But I’m not his doctor, so I can’t say for sure.
I do agree with everything else you said.
Thanks for the clarification; I didn’t know that part of the rule.
Losing Garcia sucks, but they can survive it if Madrigal/Moncada/TA can get/stay healthy. That lets Mendick shift into the utility infielder role, while Engel can cover any absence in the outfield. Obviously having Garcia would be better than not having Garcia, but there are no less than 10 players that it’d hurt more to lose, including the currently injured Bummer.
@Priggs89
Absolutely. Leury’s a great super utility, but besides RF, every position Leury mans has a player in front of him who is easily better than him (yes, I consider Madrigal far better than him even in the limited sample size). He’s a great fill-in at any position, but not as a full-time starter.
Bummer definitely hurts being on the IL, far more than Leury.
You’re right on Bummer, but fortunately, the White Sox’ pen hasn’t really been a big issue this year. Some guys like Cishek have struggled, but they’ve had enough guys step up that they can save the strugglers for mop-up duty.
They already sent Dunning back down. That really bugs me. It’s not like he was a fringe prospect or dumpster dive. He’s a pretty highly touted prospect, who probably would’ve been up last year if not for his TJS.
He did very well last night for a MLB debut. Throw the dog a bone. Keep him up. I don’t get the logic for not keeping him up, especially when they sent him down for Delmonico. Makes no sense whatsoever. There’s got to be someone else they could’ve sent down instead.
So much for building on that nice MLB debut. I generally don’t rail on Hahn, but this was a bad move on his part (not to the magnitude of the Shields/Tatis trade, but still a bad move).
The White Sox have two scheduled off days coming up in the next week, on Monday August 24th and then on Thursday, August 27th. Dane Dunning’s next start would have been on next Monday. The White Sox want to keep him on his normal routine so he will pitch that Monday at their alternate site and likely recall him later that weekend when they begin a stretch of 10 consecutive games beginning on Friday, August 28th. There is no need for Dunning to keep an active roster spot when he still 3 option years remaining and the club has those off days coming up.
That’s fair, but there’s absolutely ZERO reason for Delmonico to keep an active roster spot.
I can justify a reason or two for Nick Delmonico being on the active roster as we post. For one, the White Sox are a little short in the outfield with CF Luis Robert out of action the past two games and with his status not 100% guaranteed for the Cubs series this weekend. Versatile INF/OF Leury Garcia has also been transferred to the 60-day IL. OF Adam Engel’s quick return from the 10-day IL as part of the COVID-19 rule agreement was a positive as was the promotion of OF prospect Luis Gonzalez. While Gonzalez also offers a left-handed bat off the bench he lacks the MLB experience that Delmonico brings. Neither are likely to be starting any games over the weekend but if I were managing Delmonico would be my preference as a potential late inning lefty pinch-hitter over Gonzalez.
Another reason for having Delmonico temporarily on the active roster is because lefty hitting RF Nomar Mazara continues to struggle at the plate. Similar to Robert, switch-hitting C/1B/DH Yasmani Grandal has also been sidelined with a minor ailment this week. All this leaves the White Sox not only a bit short in the OF but also thin off the bench with an experienced left-handed bat unless you’re a bigger fan of INF Ryan Goins hitting than I am. Aside from recently promoted rookie Gonzalez, only young C/1B/DH Zack Collins provides a lefty bat.
I know you’re not a fan of Delmonico but we both know he’s just a temporary placeholder until Robert and Grandal (hopefully) return to the lineup this weekend. If not, Delmonico will almost surely be gone later next week when 2B Nick Madrigal is expected to be activated from the IL. I also anticipate that Gonzalez will be returned to the alternate site in Schaumburg sooner rather than later. Even with Madrigal’s return to the lineup I suspect that Goins will stay since only he and Danny Mendick are capable infield reserves. I believe the front office already made their preference of reserve infielders known when they DFA’d Cheslor Cuthbert on Wednesday rather than Goins who also has the ability to play SS, along with Mendick.
@AaronSapoznik
You called it, Aaron. Just read an article on CSN Chicago and that was how they described it (regarding why Dunning got sent down). Nicely done.