{"id":423925,"date":"2026-01-23T00:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423925\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:15:09","slug":"mariners-sign-world-series-champion-pitcher-after-braves-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423925\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners Sign World Series Champion Pitcher After Braves Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seattle Mariners are hoping 2026 is the year they finally bring home a World Series trophy, and it couldn’t hurt to have someone with experience in that field along for the ride.<\/p>\n

Seattle’s pitching staff is fairly stacked from top to bottom, but that didn’t mean it was wise to pass on a chance to acquire a pitcher who has shown strong upside at the major league level, if all it took was a non-roster invite.<\/p>\n

According to a Thursday report from<\/a> Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the Mariners are signing veteran right-hander Dane Dunning to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training. Dunning was coming off a rough season that saw him elect free agency from the Atlanta Braves in early October.<\/p>\n

If you like our content,\u00a0choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Dunning’s track record, good and bad \"Dane<\/p>\n

Jul 20, 2025; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Dane Dunning (34) pitches against the New York Yankees during the seventh inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

A few offseasons ago, it would have been shocking to see Dunning available at such a low cost. In 2023, he was the innings leader for the World Series champion Texas Rangers at 172 2\/3, though he was bumped to the bullpen in the playoffs. He had a 12-7 record, 3.70 ERA, and 2.7 bWAR in the 2023 regular season.<\/p>\n

However, Dunning’s ERA ballooned to 5.31 in 2024, and when he struggled early this past season, the Rangers designated him for assignment. He was traded to the Braves in July for minor-league righty Jos\u00e9 Ruiz, and when the regular season came to a close, the Braves placed him on waivers once more. <\/p>\n

The home run ball has been something of a bugaboo for Dunning, and Seattle is a known pitcher’s park. If he makes it to the major league roster at some point this season, perhaps T-Mobile Park’s fly ball suppression could help him become a valuable innings-eater once again.<\/p>\n

Then again, if everything goes according to plan, Seattle will have five excellent starters, and unless they want Dunning in the bullpen as a long-relief option, his best bet is likely to either begin the season at Triple-A or hope another club scoops him up at the end of the spring.<\/p>\n

More MLB: Mariners Sign 28-Year-Old Second Baseman Away From Nationals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Mariners are hoping 2026 is the year they finally bring home a World Series trophy, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-423925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}