{"id":5325,"date":"2025-07-18T11:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5325\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:23:13","slug":"rangers-trade-dane-dunning-to-braves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5325\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers Trade Dane Dunning To Braves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rangers announced they\u2019ve traded Dane Dunning<\/a> to the Braves for minor league reliever\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Ruiz<\/a> and cash. Atlanta designated\u00a0Jesse Chavez<\/a> for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Ruiz was outrighted last month. Texas\u2019 roster count technically drops to 38 but will climb back to 39 tomorrow when they select the contract of first baseman Rowdy Tellez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a salary dump for the Rangers. Dunning has fallen out of favor over the past two seasons. The former first-round pick tossed 172 2\/3 innings of 3.70 ERA ball during the World Series season two years ago. He only managed a 5.31 mark in 95 frames last season. While Texas tendered him a contract, Dunning had to take a very rare arbitration pay cut to ensure the Rangers didn\u2019t move on.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t get him a spot on the Opening Day roster. The 30-year-old Dunning gave up 10 runs in 11 innings during Spring Training. Texas waived him at the end of camp in the hope that another team would take his $2.66MM salary. No one bit, and he has spent most of the year in Triple-A.<\/p>\n

Dunning was called up in April, again cleared waivers in May, and was selected back onto the roster last month. He has been limited to five MLB appearances, all out of the bullpen, and has allowed four runs across 10 2\/3 innings. He has worked as a starter in the minors, pitching to a 4.47 ERA over 46 1\/3 frames in the Pacific Coast League. Dunning has punched out 24% of Triple-A opponents against a 9% walk rate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Rangers were unlikely to give Dunning anything more than mop-up work. He had fallen behind Patrick Corbin<\/a>,\u00a0Jack Leiter<\/a> and\u00a0Kumar Rocker<\/a> at the back of the rotation. Texas expects to get Jon Gray<\/a> back from a wrist fracture in the next week or two. Dunning has a much better path to a rotation spot on an Atlanta team that has been decimated by injuries.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re without Chris Sale<\/a>,\u00a0Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a>,\u00a0Reynaldo L\u00f3pez<\/a> and\u00a0AJ Smith-Shawver<\/a>. They\u2019ve given 15 starts to\u00a0Bryce Elder<\/a>, who has a near-6.00 ERA.\u00a0Davis Daniel<\/a> made his first start of the season just before the All-Star Break. He\u2019s the nominal fourth starter behind Spencer Strider<\/a>, Grant Holmes<\/a> and Elder. They pressed 20-year-old Didier Fuentes<\/a> into MLB work for which he was clearly not ready. He\u2019s now back in Triple-A.<\/p>\n

Dunning has been a capable back-end starter in the past. It seems he\u2019ll work in long relief initially, as the Braves tabbed swingman Joey Wentz<\/a> to start on Saturday against the Yankees. Dunning still has an option remaining. He\u2019ll be eligible for arbitration at least once more. There\u2019s a decent chance the Braves will non-tender him regardless, but they didn\u2019t give up anything of note to acquire him.<\/p>\n

Ruiz, 30, is a journeyman reliever. He managed a 3.71 ERA while striking out 24% of opponents over 52 appearances for the Phillies last season. Things went off the rails this year, as he has allowed 17 runs in 16 1\/3 MLB innings. Atlanta claimed him off waivers from Philadelphia but waived him themselves after he gave up three runs in one inning during his second appearance with the club. He has since tossed 7 2\/3 innings of four-run ball in Triple-A. The Rangers assigned him to their top affiliate in Round Rock.<\/p>\n

The Phillies and Ruiz agreed to a $1.225MM arbitration salary. The Braves assumed that when they claimed him. Atlanta is paying down an unspecified portion of that sum. Dunning is owed roughly $1MM for the rest of the season, while Ruiz is owed about $450K. A direct swap without cash considerations would\u2019ve knocked about $550K off the Rangers\u2019 books. They\u2019ll save a bit more than that depending on the amount of money that the Braves are covering.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small amount by MLB standards. However, as MLBTR pointed out in tonight\u2019s preview of the Rangers deadline<\/a> for Front Office subscribers, Texas should be motivated to cut spending around the fringe of the roster. Ownership clearly wants the front office to remain below the $241MM base luxury tax threshold. RosterResource<\/a> calculated their CBT number a little above $234MM before tonight\u2019s deal. That\u2019s an unofficial estimate that doesn\u2019t account for incentives that\u2019ll add to the team\u2019s tax number as they\u2019re unlocked down the stretch.<\/p>\n

The Rangers need to add at least one impact bat if they\u2019re going to make a playoff push. They should probably acquire multiple hitters and would benefit from bringing in a power arm at the back of the bullpen. Dunning was the most obvious player for a pure salary dump as deadline season approaches. Gray, Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a> and\u00a0Jonah Heim<\/a> could be candidates for a payroll-cutting trade as well, though they have (or will have, in Gray\u2019s case) a bigger role than Dunning was playing.<\/p>\n

As for Chavez, he\u2019ll go back on waivers for the third time this year. There\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll clear, elect free agency, then re-sign with Atlanta on a minor league contract. The 41-year-old righty has given up eight runs in as many innings over four MLB appearances this season. He has a 2.05 ERA across 30 2\/3 innings in the minors.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rangers announced they\u2019ve traded Dane Dunning to the Braves for minor league reliever\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Ruiz and cash. Atlanta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,6118,6119,6120,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-5325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dane-dunning","11":"tag-jesse-chavez","12":"tag-jose-ruiz","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}