1:45pm: The Rangers have now made it official, announcing Dunning’s injury as a right rotator cuff strain. White was recalled and Leiter was added as the 27th man, as expected. They also activated outfielder Robbie Grossman, who they acquired from the White Sox earlier today, while optioning infielder Jonathan Ornelas.
1:30pm: The Rangers are going to place right-hander Dane Dunning on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder issue, manager Bruce Bochy tells Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, who relayed the info on X.
It’s unclear how long the Rangers expect Dunning to be out of action, but it’s an unfortunate development for the team regardless as their rotation depth has been continually thinned out this year. The club knew that Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle wouldn’t be available in the first half, as both of them underwent Tommy John surgery last year. Then Max Scherzer required back surgery in the offseason, which was going to force him to miss some time as well.
Last week, Nathan Eovaldi landed on the IL due to a groin strain Cody Bradford due to a rib stress fracture. Now Dunning will follow him due to this shoulder issue. Between those two, Scherzer, deGrom and Mahle, they have a full rotation on the injured list at the moment.
That leaves Jon Gray, Michael Lorenzen and Andrew Heaney as the healthy core of the starting staff at the moment. José Ureña had been working out of the bullpen but started yesterday and threw five innings against the A’s.
The club has a double-header today, with Lorenzen taking the ball for the first contest. Jack Leiter is planned for the “27th man” and the starter for the second game, though Owen White is coming up as well, per Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today. White will seemingly be the corresponding move for Dunning’s IL placement.
With Dunning now on the shelf, the Rangers will have to decide on how they want to structure the back end of their rotation, with Ureña, White and Leiter presumably in contention for the two spots behind Gray, Lorenzen and Heaney.
Ureña has a 3.86 earned run average this year but, as mentioned, most of that has come out of the bullpen. He had a 6.45 ERA in ten starts last year and hasn’t posted an ERA below 5.00 since 2018. Leiter first major league start didn’t go especially well, with seven earned runs allowed in 3 2/3 innings. He has struck out 37% of Triple-A batters faced this year but also allowed six home runs in just 25 1/3 innings. White allowed five earned runs in four big league innings last year and currently has a 5.70 ERA in Triple-A this year.
Scherzer once seemed to be on track to return in early May but that plan has hit a snag. It was reported a week ago that he experienced some thumb soreness while on a rehab assignment and was going to be shut down for a bit. General manager Chris Young said today that Scherzer won’t throw again until the soreness is completely gone, per Wilson on X.
His rehab outing was on April 24, so he’s now two weeks removed from that. The longer his current shutdown lasts will presumably require more of a ramp-up once he is able to get back on track. As of now, that leaves him a question mark until there’s progress with the thumb soreness.
All that points to the Rangers cobbling a rotation together for a bit, until Eovaldi or Dunning are able to rejoin the mix. Despite the rotation challenges, the Rangers are 21-16 and half a game ahead of the Mariners for the division lead in the American League West.
#nextmanup!
goodness. Rangers can’t keep anyone healthy.
How’s that decision to not sign monty looking now.
Depends on what Monty wanted as far as years, and dollars, plus they did have RSN issues as a whole bunch of teams did, so they tightened up the purse too.
I mean pretty good since Michael Lorenzen has been a lot better than him thus far this year. Don’t think signing both was ever a consideration; you can never have too many starters but you also don’t expect to lose 60% of your rotation in a month. So it goes
“I mean pretty good since Michael”…All that, plus you literally cannot sign everyone that you’d like for obvious reasons. Giving 3/4 of a BILLION dollars to Seagar, Degrom(+ Scherzer and Monty) & Semien always meant they’d have to tighten their belts in other places. And their theories and strategies has led to a World Series victory so it’s pretty silly to criticize them for not signing yet another player.
Monty held out as long as he could because he wanted to be a Texas Ranger. Then signed for less than anyone thought because all we were offering were excuses. He was the anchor of the rotation throughout the playoff run and what did it get? Our first World Series Championship! Thank you, Monty! Your fans will never forget you.
CY should probably be on the phone with White Sox for Fedde, Keller or Flexen or with the Marlins for Sanchez or Rogers perhaps the Rockies for Hudson or Quantrill.. Would hate to give him up but maybe some multiplayer trade that sends Huff to St Louis for Lynn/Gibson and a AAA SP prospect.
I like this angle, always a possibility with CY. However, I feel it’s still early and Rangers have depth. They are leading the division currently. I think Texas is in a good place, but you can never have enough starting pitching.
He was too busy trading a pitching prospect for a beyond washed up Grossman
Prospect? Robbie can hit lefties which was desperately needed. I believe the plan is to send Langford back to AAA to get him going once the hamstring is healed.
Do some research. We gave up a prospect only because the pale sox knew we were desperate. Grossman would’ve been dfa’d within a few weeks at most this was a joke of a move and reeks of the aforementioned desperation…from a pitching starving rangers team at that.
Exactly my thoughts
Since the Astros are a lost cause, Verlander or Framber would be nice.
Time to get some extended looks at Winn, white, and leiter
I said it in the beginning and I am saying it now – the Rangers will regret not signing Jordan Montgomery in the off season. The D-Backs got him cheap.
Hardly cheap still grossly overpaid
Preachhhh I’ve been saying it since day 1 as well
“Entire Rangers Team placed on 15 day IL”
Does anyone have Bartolo Colon’s number?
Bring back big sexy, for entertainment at the very least