Reds right-hander Justin Dunn will undergo surgery to repair the anterior capsule of his throwing shoulder, the team informed reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). The club didn’t provide a timetable but it’d seem likely he’ll at least miss the remainder of the 2023 season.
Dunn has been on the injured list for the entire season. The former first-round pick has been battling shoulder concerns for a couple years. Dunn had shoulder soreness (of which Cincinnati was aware at the time) even before the Mariners dealt him to the Reds in the Jesse Winker/Eugenio Suárez trade coming out of the lockout. He lost the first half of 2022 rehabbing, returned to make seven starts, then was shut back down last September.
The injuries persisted over the offseason, as Dunn continued to battle a strain in his rotator cuff area. The Reds sent him out on a minor league rehab stint a couple weeks ago. That raised some hope he might make it back to the mound, even if just in short stints, but he’s unfortunately still not past the shoulder woes.
Dunn owns a 4.44 ERA in 32 big league starts. He’s making $900K this year after avoiding arbitration. He’d likely be in line for the same amount next season if the Reds tender him a contract, though that doesn’t seem assured since Cincinnati would have to carry him on the 40-man roster all offseason. He’ll surpass the four-year service threshold this year and would be eligible for arbitration through 2025 if the Reds keep him on the roster.

Bader, 29, and Renfroe, 31, were two of several veteran players placed on waivers this week. There were many clubs who were still hovering around contention at the trade deadline but slipped back in the standings in the month of August. But the opportunity to trade impending free agents for any kind of return had passed by, leaving them little recourse but to place those players on waivers. By doing so, they could perhaps at least save themselves some money since the claiming team takes on the remainder of the contract, while allowing the player to move somewhere with a chance to contend and perhaps make the playoffs.
Despite each player’s value, the Yankees and Angels fell back in the standings in August and gave up on their hopes of contending. Both of these players are impending free agents and neither would warrant a qualifying offer at season’s end, so their respective clubs placed them on waivers in the hopes that another team would put in a claim and take the remainder of the contract off their hands.