After offseason tweaks, Dunning optimistic he's back on track for '25
FRISCO, Texas -- Before September 2024, Dane Dunning had only been a member of the Round Rock Express during various rehab assignments.
Acquired from the White Sox ahead of the 2021 season, Dunning spent all of the next three-and-a-half seasons with the big league club. That was until Sept. 1, 2024, when he was optioned to Triple-A for the first time in his Texas tenure.
Dunning was the Rangers' Pitcher of the Year in 2023, when he posted a 3.70 ERA across 172 2/3 innings as a swingman for the eventual World Series champs. He also won the award in 2021 as a rookie.
But getting through 2024 was a struggle for Dunning. He opened the season in the rotation, posting a 3.94 ERA across his first nine starts. Then he landed on the injured list with a right rotator cuff strain on May 8. He landed on the injured list again with shoulder soreness on July 5.
Dunning's ERA ballooned from there, and he finished with a 5.31 ERA in 95 innings.
¡°After that [IL stint], I still had a couple good outings, probably a couple bad ones, too,¡± Dunning said Saturday at the Rangers¡¯ Winter Caravan stop at Double-A Frisco. ¡°I can point my finger in multiple directions, but I don't know if I can exactly pinpoint that this is what happened. There were so many things that happened last year. But the one thing that I can look at was my mechanics and see what I can do to figure [them] out. A big thing was to clean that up, and that way I can move more efficiently down the mound this next year."
Dunning, who spends his offseasons in Charlotte, N.C., has shed a bit of weight, built up muscle and cleaned up his mechanics. He wants to move quicker and more explosive down the mound.
He¡¯s spent a lot of time watching video of both his good outings and his bad ones, trying to find the balance to be consistent all season.
¡°The offseason¡¯s been really good,¡± Dunning said. ¡°I've been working on a lot of things, cleaning up a lot of problems that I created throughout the year. ¡ This offseason, a lot of it was directional. I was landing very far over the last year, and I was really losing my hips. I think that's been a common theme for the past couple years with my hips. I want to just get more directed toward my line and be able to work freely. Just let my arm move freely. It's been really good so far, and I feel like I've made some major improvements, and I'm looking for this next season.¡±
Dunning enters 2025 figuring somewhere into the bullpen equation. The right-hander was electric in relief in early '23, posting a 1.77 ERA in 20 1/3 innings before he rejoined the rotation in May when Jacob deGrom underwent Tommy John surgery.
The Rangers have a lot of rotational depth, with deGrom fully healthy and Nathan Eovaldi re-signing with the club, and Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, Tyler Mahle, Kumar Rocker (No. 2 prospect) and Jack Leiter (No. 4 prospect) in the mix.
¡°I've told them from the get-go, it¡¯s about whatever I can do to help the team win,¡± Dunning said. ¡°I'm a firm believer in that. Everyone, we all try to pull from the same rope. So for me, it's like, if they need me to come out of the bullpen, then that's my job at that point. If they need me to start, then perfect. That's my job. Just whatever I can do to help.¡±