Rangers lose another starting pitcher to injured list

The Rangers are going to place right-hander Dane Dunning on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder issue, Kennedi Landry of MLB.com reports.

It’s unclear how long the Rangers expect Dunning to be out of action, but it’s an unfortunate development for the team regardless as their rotation depth has been continually thinned out this year. The club knew that Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle wouldn’t be available in the first half, as both of them underwent Tommy John surgery last year. Then Max Scherzer required back surgery in the offseason, which was going to force him to miss some time as well.

Nathan Eovaldi recently landed on the IL due to a groin strain and now Dunning will follow him due to this shoulder issue. The Rangers have a full rotation on the injured list at the moment.

That leaves Jon Gray, Michael Lorenzen and Andrew Heaney as the healthy core of the starting staff at the moment. José Ureña had been working out of the bullpen but started Tuesday and threw five innings against the A’s.

The club has a double-header Wednesday, with Lorenzen taking the ball for the first contest. Jack Leiter is planned for the “27th man” and the starter for the second game, though Owen White is coming up as well, per Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today. White will seemingly be the corresponding move for Dunning’s IL placement.

With Dunning on the shelf, the Rangers will have to decide on how they want to structure the back end of their rotation, with Ureña, White and Leiter presumably in contention for the two spots.

Ureña has a 3.86 earned run average this year but, as mentioned, most of that has come out of the bullpen. He had a 6.45 ERA in ten starts last year and hasn’t posted an ERA below 5.00 since 2018. Leiter first major league start didn’t go especially well, with seven earned runs allowed in 3 2/3 innings. He has struck out 37% of Triple-A batters faced this year but also allowed six home runs in just 25 1/3 innings. White allowed five earned runs in four big league innings last year and currently has a 5.70 ERA in Triple-A this year.

Scherzer once seemed to be on track to return in early May but that plan has hit a snag. It was reported a week ago that he experienced some thumb soreness while on a rehab assignment and was going to be shut down for a bit. General manager Chris Young said today that Scherzer won’t throw again until the soreness is completely gone, per Wilson on X.

His rehab outing was on April 24, so he’s now two weeks removed from that. The longer his current shutdown lasts will presumably require more of a ramp-up once he is able to get back on track. As of now, that leaves him a question mark until there’s progress with the thumb soreness.

All that points to the Rangers cobbling a rotation together for a bit, until Eovaldi or Dunning are able to rejoin the mix. Despite the rotation challenges, the Rangers are 21-16 and half a game ahead of the Mariners for the division lead in the American League West.