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Rangers Select Tucker Barnhart, Designate Dane Dunning For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | April 30, 2025 at 6:13pm CDT

6:12pm: Texas officially announced the Barnhart selection and Dunning’s DFA. They did not place Higashioka on the injured list tonight.

4:45pm: The Rangers are going to select catcher Tucker Barnhart to their roster, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. That will give them some help behind the plate as Kyle Higashioka battles hamstring tightness. Right-hander Dane Dunning will be designated for assignment as the corresponding move. This will give the active roster a 14/12 split in terms of position players and pitchers, at least for now.

Higashioka played last night but it appears he hurt his hamstring in the process. Per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com and Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, an injured list stint is possible but the MRI results are still pending. Whether he goes on the IL or not, it seems he might be unavailable for a day or two, so the club has brought up another backstop to support Jonah Heim.

Barnhart, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in the offseason. He has been playing for Triple-A Round Rock thus far, hitting .246/.354/.391 in 20 games for that club. He appeared in each big league season from 2014 to 2024, so this will be his 12th straight campaign if he gets into a game.

Broadly speaking, he’s been a glove-first catcher. He has a career .241/.318/.351 batting line, production which translates to a wRC+ of 78. He has tapered off a bit in recent years, with a .208/.286/.255 line and 58 wRC+ since the start of 2022, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal.

Defensively, his framing marks have been subpar for his entire career, but better recently. With both Baseball Prospectus and Statcast, his early-career framing was considered poor, but closer to average over the past six years. His blocking and throwing have been more consistently strong. He’ll step in as Heim’s backup until Higashioka is ready to return to action.

Dunning, 30, was only added to the roster on Monday. The Rangers are in a patch of playing 13 straight games, leading to heavy use of the pitching staff. Caleb Boushley tossed two innings on Sunday, so the Rangers swapped Dunning in to take over as the club’s long man. Dunning entered last night’s game with the Rangers up 12-0 after six innings, relieving starter Jacob deGrom. Dunning absorbed the final three frames as they went on to win 15-2. He allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo and will likely be placed on waivers. Back in March, he was passed through outright waivers unclaimed, which allowed the club to keep him as non-roster depth and bring him back this week.

He and the club avoided arbitration in November, agreeing to a salary of $2.66MM this year. No club was willing to claim him and take on that salary just over a month ago, not too surprising since he had a 5.31 earned run average last year. He posted a 5.40 ERA in five starts for Round Rock before being called up this week. Since he has more than three but less than five years of service time, he will have the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers again. However, doing so would mean forfeiting what’s left of that money, so he would likely accept as he did last month.

Most clubs operate with the 13-pitcher maximum at all times but the Rangers should be okay at 12 for a short spell. Since Dunning was the only reliever to pitch last night, the rest of the bullpen got a night off. Perhaps another pitcher will be added if Higashioka goes on the IL. Or if he avoids the IL, Barnhart might be bumped off the roster for a fresh arm.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

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Texas Rangers Transactions Dane Dunning Tucker Barnhart

Mets Select Chris Devenski, Place Danny Young On IL With Elbow Sprain
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Tyler Glasnow To Be Shut Down 10 to 14 Days
View Comments (13)
Post a Comment

13 Comments

  1. SonnySteele

    3 months ago

    Nice to see Barney still kicking around MLB ten years after his debut in Cincinnati.

    5
    Reply
    • Armaments216

      3 months ago

      He should need just a few weeks to reach 10 years of MLB service time.

      2
      Reply
  2. This one belongs to the Reds

    3 months ago

    Tucker back in the bigs! Congrats and good luck.

    3
    Reply
  3. Logjammer D'Baggagecling

    3 months ago

    Damn. I just saw Dane Dunning pitch last night. In a blow out since against the A’s

    He got the save in a 15-2 win

    Reply
  4. cwsOverhaul

    3 months ago

    Didn’t realize Dunning was mostly down at AAA this season. The way pitchers are dropping like flies, a club may take him for the bullpen even if they don’t like him in a flex starter role.

    3
    Reply
    • Jeremy320

      3 months ago

      @ pro-rated $2.6m arbitration salary I think he might get claimed.

      Reply
  5. spooky

    3 months ago

    Bruce always keeps a stash of 30+ year old back up catchers

    Reply
    • Clofreesz

      3 months ago

      He’s also got Chad Wallach in AAA.

      Reply
  6. AC Surf Baseball

    3 months ago

    At least Dane Dunning earned his first career save in his only appearance this year. This could be a Phillies claim.

    Reply
    • phillies1993

      3 months ago

      Yeah, I think they could really use someone who can pitch 2-3 innings and save the rest of the bullpen. The Orioles may claim him before the Phillies have a chance, though.

      Reply
      • osfandan

        3 months ago

        Feels like a no-brainer, which exemplifies the sad state of our SP right now.

        Reply
  7. GarryHarris

    3 months ago

    How can it be a save situation when he entered the game ahead 12-0?

    Reply
    • Jeremy320

      3 months ago

      Last 3 innings.

      Reply

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