The Royals are in agreement with righty Justin Dunn on a minor league contract, reports Jaylon Thompson of The Kansas City Star. The former first-round pick had been pitching in Triple-A with the White Sox but was released last week.
Dunn signed an offseason minor league deal with Chicago. He had a tough run in Triple-A, allowing a 7.64 ERA across 33 innings. He walked more than 15% of opponents while allowing hard contact on half the batted balls against him. He’d started his first seven appearances before moving to the bullpen. Dunn tossed a scoreless outing in his first relief appearance but gave up seven runs (five earned) over the next 2 1/3 frames and was released.
The 29-year-old last appeared in the majors with Cincinnati in 2022. He battled shoulder problems the following season and was limited to three minor league appearances. That culminated in surgery that cost him the entire ’24 campaign. Dunn has averaged 92.4 MPH in this year’s Triple-A work, which is in line with his velocity from his most recent MLB action. He has 32 big league starts to his name between the Mariners and Reds, posting a 4.44 ERA in 133 2/3 innings.
LFG!
Heeeeeey, a good name to see
I remember Dunn from his short Seattle career before he was flipped to Cincy. You gotta feel for these guys, they want it so bad, but just don’t have the talent, health or durability.
This guy is still playing? He’s a phantom of the last rebuilding mariners teams
As a Mets fan I remember being upset when he was traded as a prospect but he never did much
He was so good when he was younger. Great fastball and curve with a 4 pitch mix. Surprised he was never converted to relief, cut it to fastball/curve/occasion slider and maybe his control wouldn’t be as bad.