The White Sox tend to pay way more than intended when it comes to rental veteran starting pitchers. The package they sent to Oakland for Jeff Samardzija was shipped in a time-release capsule, with Marcus Semien providing immediate help, and Chris Bassitt arriving for rotation relief later. James Shields cost you-know-who. Were it not for the pandemic, Yordi Rosario might’ve turned into Pedro Martinez, rather than a rookie-ball casualty among the scores of low-level prospects jettisoned last summer.
Is that overstatement? Sure. Is that the same reason I picked Dane Dunning for American League Rookie of the Year? Indeed.
But unlike every Bassitt start against his former team — or Daniel Hudson’s gem against Edwin Jackson 10 years ago — Dunning couldn’t use the opportunity on Friday night to force-feed the fan base with immediate regrets. He instead hit his first snag with the Rangers, giving up five runs on eight hits and a couple walks while lasting just 2⅔ innings. The two batters he struck out were the first two batters he faced.
I had braced for worse given the game log Dunning brought to Chicago. He’d allowed just one run over his first 15 innings with Texas, with 16 strikeouts against a measly two walks. The five-inning average was intentional; the Rangers capped his starts at 75 pitches with hopes of easing him into what would be his first six-month season. On top of that, Dunning was trying to channel the same energy Bassitt so effectively summoned:
“Just competing against my old team,” Dunning said. “Obviously, I wasn’t planning on getting traded. Then things happen. Being able to compete, though, and hopefully show them that the Rangers made a really great decision on getting me is a goal of mine. It’s a big goal of mine.”
But the version of Dunning on the mound at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday night didn’t quite faze me, and before he gave up more hits in two-thirds of the third inning (seven) than he had in any of his previous starts (five). His sinker had the kind of movement that generated some early flinches, but it also sat at 90 mph, or two ticks slower than he threw with the White Sox in 2020. It seemed like the kind of approach that could blow up on him the second time through if Dunning couldn’t reach back for more in the middle innings, or otherwise change the script.
Sure enough, Dunning’s sinkers started finding barrels by the third inning. They still had enough movement to stay in the park, but they reversed course with enough exit velocity to find safe places to fall or roll.
We probably saw Dunning at his worst, or at least Dunning down a weapon. He said his biggest issue was his slider, which wasn’t a threat to make the Sox think about something besides his two-seamer:
“I was disappointed in myself more than anything. I didn’t command my breaking ball at all. It started out as a ball and finished as a ball. So they were just able to eliminate it.”
If Dunning’s a one-pitch pitcher and that one pitch is a 90 mph sinker, yeah, he’s probably going to have to luck it out.
Even if Dunning’s arsenal wasn’t fully represented in his return to Chicago, it did show why the White Sox saw him as expendable. They probably didn’t need to rely on another guy with an aesthetically unremarkable sinker, and they already have multiple copies of The Case of the Missing Velocity. Maybe you’d still prefer him to Dylan Cease’s maddening methodology, but I’d hold off on that determination until midsummer, which should test Dunning both in terms of in-season fatigue and the carry of fly balls.
For the time being, the real loose end is Lance Lynn, who’s currently on the injured list with a trapezius issue. Tony La Russa insists the favorable schedule prompted the shelving more than the discomfort, and the snowout in Cleveland effectively means Lynn won’t miss a start. Lynn has earned some benefit of the doubt with his durability after Tommy John surgery, but previous injuries are the greatest predictor of future injuries regardless of previous accomplishments, and the White Sox’s aforementioned track record in these trades make it tough to take anything as a given.
(Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)
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Dane Dunning misses first chance to make White Sox regret trading him - Sox Machine
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