The White Sox have signed right-hander Justin Dunn to a minor league deal, per the team. The CAA client will be in spring training as a non-roster invitee.
Now 29 years old, Dunn was a first-round pick by the Mets in 2016. He ranked among the organization’s top prospect when he was traded to Seattle alongside Jarred Kelenic in the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz blockbuster. The M’s gave Dunn a look in parts of three seasons and got decent results along the way, though Dunn also battled multiple shoulder injuries in his Mariners tenure. Eventually, he was packaged with Brandon Williamson and Jake Fraley in the trade bringing Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker to Seattle.
With the Reds, Dunn only pitched a total of 65 2/3 innings between the minors and big leagues combined. His shoulder was ailing at the time of the trade, but Cincinnati made the swap anyhow. Dunn’s first season in Cincinnati was delayed by that shoulder; the team announced late in spring training that Dunn would miss “months” with a shoulder issue. He wound up pitching 31 innings in the minors and another 31 in the majors that year, logging an identical 6.10 ERA in both settings. Dunn’s 2023 season was again delayed by shoulder woes, and he eventually underwent surgery to repair the anterior shoulder in his right capsule late in 2023. He hasn’t pitched since.
Just a couple weeks ago, Dunn’s camp hosted a showcase for big league clubs. It was always unlikely that he’d land a guaranteed roster spot after such a lengthy layoff, but Dunn will head to a White Sox organization that should have ample opportunity for him next season. He’ll bring a career 4.44 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate and ugly 14.7% walk rate in 133 2/3 innings to Chicago. When healthy, Dunn has averaged 93.7 mph on his heater and paired that offering with an 84 mph slider and 80 mph curveball.
Because of all the time Dunn has spent on a major league injured list, he has four full seasons of service time already. If he makes the White Sox’ roster at any point, he’d get to five years with another 152 days in the majors. At the very least, Dunn has a full slate of minor league options and two seasons of club control remaining. If he’s brought up midseason when there are fewer than 152 days on the calendar, he’d technically be controllable another three years, at minimum. All of that is putting the proverbial cart before the horse, however. First and foremost, Dunn will need to show that his shoulder injury is behind him and make some strides with his longstanding command issues. There’s plenty of former prospect pedigree, but it’s been close to a decade since Dunn was a first-rounder and about five years since he was last considered a top prospect.
Prunella Vulgaris
Typical White Sox move.
rotofool
Exactly! 14.7% walk rate…Coop can fix him.
cubbiemike
Who is Coop? Katz is the pitching coach.
ChiSox_Fan
For now…
But Coop may be coming back.
This is the MLB Rumors site!
Dumpster Divin Theo
Coop or Eli. Can’t keep those Mannings down
Rsox
As far as chances to stick in the rotation or on the roster for the whole season in general, i don’t think Dunn could have made a better choice
roob
That’s ridiculous. He has no chance to make the starting rotation. The Sox actually have many decent to good options. If the Sox have any strength it’s that.
Most likely he will be in the bullpen in AAA with a shot at the bigs later in the season if he can get anything back.
Rsox
You think Dunn couldn’t beat Chris Flexen for a rotation spot?
Dumpster Divin Theo
Flexen wouldn’t be one of their top 5
ChiSox_Fan
Is this Adam’s son?
Rsox
Only if Adam was down with the swirl…
longoverdue1977
Dunn is Done. Mariner’s brass Jerry Dipstick should also be done for lacking eye for talents.
avenger65
longoverdue: I’ll take DiPoto over Getz any day of the week. getz will continue to pile up a roster full of rejects until Reinsdorf either sells the team or goes to meet the devil.
Jarred Kelenic's Beer Can
Dipoto’s an idiot at times but he’s done a lot of things well. The pitching staff, the core players up the middle, and the deep farm system are successes overall. Julio played solid defense and racked up a third straight 20-20 season, Cal just won a bunch of awards in the last week, and JP has been a solid player until he got hurt. The problem is ownership pulling the rug out from under him right as the team was finally contending, telling him he wasn’t allowed to spend any money to make a huge run. Not entirely his fault that the only moves he could make have been for cheap veterans on the verge of washing up.
avenger65
Sure. Let’s continue the rebuild with a guy with chronic shoulder injuries and statistics that would embarrass a little leaguer. That’s Getz’ idea of a building block. Garbage in, garbage stays.
Jarred Kelenic's Beer Can
Someone’s gotta pitch up there while they wait for the draft picks to develop.
positively_broad_st
In addition to trading Crochet and Robert for top prospects, we can expect the White Sox to do a lot of these types of signings. And why shouldn’t they? For the next couple of seasons, the Sox should be the land of opportunity for AAAA players and reclamation projects, like established big leaguers looking to rebound from down years and injuries. There’s no point in pursuing top free agents, giving up draft picks, or rushing up the next wave of young talent just to lose 100 games again. The White Sox will churn and burn through guys like this for the next couple of years until they can get in a competitive situation again…
Emilia
At the end of the season, the White Sox SP projected at 70-80 wins, based on their final stats.. A historically bad bullpen and historically bad offense made them so awful, plus dreadful defense. SP is the least of their problems.
Aiden Awe
Bingo, this is what ppl aren’t realizing. Wsox weren’t blown out a lot unlike most historically bad seasons.
Cubby 2025
Weren’t blow out?????? Their run differential was -306!!!!
Unlike ALL historical bad teams, they lost 121 games.
I know the holiday season is approaching, but that was a spin on what just happened.
Aiden Awe
They kept losing by 1-3 runs a game.
hyraxwithaflamethrower
As bad as the pen was last year, I’m ok with almost any signing. Maybe Banny and Katz fix him. Worth the minor league deal to find out.
Aiden Awe
The bullpen was average last September.
hyraxwithaflamethrower
One month is a small sample size. They were dreadful most of the year and if they didn’t set the MLB record for blown saves, they came very close.
Jarred Kelenic's Beer Can
I’m surprised Dunn got a job throwing baseballs in 2024. He was awful when healthy, the only reason his career ERA is under 5 is because he got really lucky that balls in play found gloves instead of grass. Mariners defense bailed him out constantly.