White Sox pitching prospect Dane Dunning has undergone Tommy John surgery, the club announced to reporters including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times (via Twitter). He’ll miss the entire 2019 season and, in all likelihood, some of the 2020 campaign as well.
This news isn’t surprising given the course of recent events. The club had acknowledged that replacement of Dunning’s ulnar collateral ligament was a possibility.
Dunning was generally considered one of the game’s hundred or so best overall prospects, even after his otherwise excellent 2018 campaign ended with elbow issues. Before that development, which ultimately proved a precursor to today’s procedure, Dunning had spun 86 1/3 innings of 2.71 ERA ball at the High-A and Double-A levels. He recorded 10.4 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in that stretch while drawing grounders on more than half the balls put in play against him.
RKH03
White sox getting very unlucky with their prospects
NerdPowahh
At least the White Sox signed Machado in the offseason to offset this bad news.
ChiSox_Fan
Foolish
Downvote!
jdgoat
At least they got his friend Jon Jay.
KingRyan227
Don’t forget about Yonder
matt4baseball
It’s a big loss to us fans with all these young elite prospects having to have TJ so early in their careers.
ChiSox_Fan
The TJ athletes will come back stronger than ever. History supports that.
Sox will win 3 WS during 2021-2025
nsmith12641
Lol
nsmith12641
To clarify the Lol was meant for the final comment about World Series wins.
Cat Mando
ChiSox_Fan
“The TJ athletes will come back stronger than ever. History supports that.”
tht.fangraphs.com/tommy-john-surgery-success-rates…
No it doesn’t. You are embarrassing yourself with this foolishness and “Yes, Eloy is the next Babe Ruth.” and “Sox will win 3 WS during 2021-2025”
pplama
Rebuild, off.
ChiSox_Fan
Sox should pick up Gio Gonzalez.
stymeedone
why? is he having arm problems, too?
Priggs89
Finally. Should’ve done this 6 months ago.
Tim Newport
When one prospect gets injured, it’s bad luck. When one after another after another gets injured, something is seriously wrong.
When one prospect fails, it’s understandable. When your system fails to provide quality major league players year after year after year, something is seriously wrong. Yes, of course there was Chris Sale…he was lucky to zoom right past the Sox development staff.
Who can you point to anywhere in the entire White Sox structure who has been doing such a good job that some other team may want to hire him away from the Sox? Who is doing such a good job that he should even keep his job with the White Sox?
NerdPowahh
Jerry Reinsdorf will live to a 110…Just watch
petrie000
He feeds off misery and suffering to sustain his unnatural life
NerdPowahh
And he owns both the Bulls and White Sox.
Yikes.
ChiSox_Fan
And Bulls will showcase Zion next year.
Worst to first next year for the Bulls!
NerdPowahh
Seeing as this is the same ownership, they’ll trade the rights to Zion Williamson for the NBA equivalent of James Shields.
thurmanmerman33
Here’s hoping that Michael Reinsdorf has no friends he promised GM jobs too…
Priggs89
Omar Vizquel appears to be pretty good at his job. Looking forward to him being the big league manager within the next 2 years.
pplama
What do you like the most: running his team into outs, forbidding Robert from pulling the ball no matter what count, pitch or situation, or being totally clueless when asked to take the Angels’ managerial test because it contained questions on advanced metrics?
Priggs89
All of the above
pplama
Then why replace Renteria? He already manages the team like it’s 1988.
Djones246890
It’s a Reinsdorf organization, which means it’s extremely poorly run, and there’s little-to-no accountability. He also owns the Bulls, and they are also often-injured. Coincidence? I think not.
maximumvelocity
These stories really should note that TJS was on the table when they shut him down last year.
Instead, they wasted a full year of Dunning’s potential development for no valid reason.
mamss
The reasoning was valid, they wanted to prevent Tommy John surgery. Didn’t work out but the reasoning was sound at the time.
petrie000
I actually agree with that. If a trained medical professional tells you there’s other options, might as well try the other options
pplama
“no valid reason”
Except Dr. James Andrews advising against surgery.
maximumvelocity
Is that what he did, or did he lay out several options, which included rehab?
Because as I remember, his strain last year was already borderline for TJS, and not guaranteed to heal.
pplama
No
IronBallsMcGinty
Sigh, the AL Central is easily winnable and the Sox, in typical fashion are unprepared. At this rate, Harper’s contract will be half over before this rebuild is finished and the Sox are ready to compete.
Sorry for the negativity but seriously, it’s frustrating seeing your team at levels less than mediocre.
*sigh…. GO SOX!
SupremeZeus
As expected. Rebuild taking hits. He isn’t accruing ML time. So armchair sox GMs have that going for them.
MikeyHammer
Sure he didn’t get Elton John surgery with those crazy specs ?
Tim Newport
This is the first comment ever on MLBTR that actually made me laugh…
retire21
Elton John Surgery would be FABULOUS !
Afterwards,
The Pitch is Back!
Bryzzo2016
Ok, this is like kicking a man while he’s down. First Kopech, now Dunning. Not cool. I’m obviously not a W Sox fan, but I hate seeing stuff like this. I genuinely wish this kid a successful recovery and I hope him and Kopech come back stronger than ever. Thankfully they’re both young.
Nats Town
Eaton trade is looking like a wet fart for both teams
pullhitter445
Exactly why you go get 26 year old proven stars when they are available. White Sox and Jerry reinsdorf think they can just copy the cubs and Astros by accumulating several prospects. White Sox are a complete joke of an organization. Each year become more and more frustrating being a fan of them. I’m glad nobody goes to the games, no shot I’ll support the way this team is run. I’ll go see eloy a few times and when good teams worth watching come to town for $10. Other than that no interest in supporting anyone in ownership or front office, a bunch of bums.
Djones246890
Pretty much. The blueprint the Cubs laid out is not something that ANY organization can do.
They need to be competent, accountable, and actually know what they’re doing.
You can guess how I feel about the Sox as an organization.
ChiSoxCity
Shoulder/arm injuries have been a common problem with pitchers throughout the league, not just the Sox. Pitching prospects (vets too) have been going under the knife at an alarming rate.
Bryzzo2016
Yep, true. Sadly it’s becoming a trend over the last 15 years or so. Some organizations have been able to dodge that bullet, but not many. Again, these two are very young, no reason to think they won’t have a successful recovery. I hate seeing this stuff, no matter what team they play for.
Djones246890
These young kids are made of glass, nowadays. I’m not kidding. It’s the weak soyboy revolution.
Idioms for Idiots
About all you can do is hope for a full recovery for Dunning. And about the only blessing (if you want to call it that) is by the time Dunning should be ready for the Sox, Rodon will either already be gone or will be in his last season with the Sox, so Dunning will just take his spot in the rotation.
Since I don’t have time to comment on everyone’s post, let’s stop with trying to already declare winners and losers on the Sale, Eaton, and Q trades. I wouldn’t declare anything for at least 3 more seasons. Well, except Boston. No matter what happens, Boston can be considered a winner, since I don’t think Boston wins the WS without Sale. It could end up a win-win for both teams, but Boston got a ring with Sale, so they are winners at least on their end.
It’s way too early to declare winners and losers in these trades. Eloy & Cease haven’t even played a MLB game yet. Ditto for Basabe and (obviously) Dunning. Kopech got all of 4 games (2 truncated by rain). Moncada looked bad last year, but it’s too early to declare him a bust. Let’s at least see what Moncada does this year. Lopez could go either way from here, but at least it looks encouraging for him. Even Giolito could potentially figure it out (which I’m not holding my breath on that one). I think I got everyone (except the throw-ins who will never make it past AA ball).
petrie000
How dare you ask for patience and perspective?! This is the internet, good sir!
ChiSoxCity
After the cubs get blown up and rebooted midseason, remember you said this. lol
petrie000
I have a fairly good memory, fortunately. Or in your case unfortunately, mister ‘Kris Bryant hasn’t achieved anything because of declining RBI totals’…