Sunday hops, 3-23-25.

A weekly compendium emptying the bench, with Rangers developments, rumors, and takes — and yes, a little TROT COFFEY.

(Photo by Brandon Wade/Getty Images)

Here we go. We’ve finally arrived at That Week.

The postgame Three Up, Three Down’s are about to get rolling in steady supply. As will Gameday Chats. I’m about to start dropping installments of my Top 72 Prospects series. Brand new storylines are about to evolve, and I can’t wait to dig in on them in this space.

Glad you guys will be here with me. Let’s go.

And for those of you checking things out today’s free post, I’d love to have you join our community. We’ve got several different subscription options for you to consider. I wrote 272 stories in 2024 — and that’s in just 10 ½ months, as we launched last year when spring training opened on Valentine’s Day — and would love nothing more than the Rangers putting together a season in 2025 that prompts more than that.

On to this week’s Hops.

Stunning news on Dunning.

The news interrupted my workout this morning.

The Rangers Pitcher of the Year in the greatest season the franchise has ever had. Apparently healthy. Capable of handling various duties, including a multi-inning role that Texas will certainly need filled early in the season, and perhaps by more than one reliever.

On top of all of that: optionable.

And yet, Dane Dunning is headed off the Rangers’ 40-man roster, and either to Triple-A Round Rock on a minor-league assignment or to another organization willing to take on his MLB deal. [Correction:] If claimed by another team, Texas has relieved itself of that payroll hit.

In 2023, Dunning kicked off the season in the bullpen but, shortly after Jacob deGrom was sidelined, joined the rotation and ended up leading the Rangers in innings pitched. He won a team-leading 12 games, which was tied for 10th most in the American League, and posted the league’s 12th-best ERA (3.70).

But he struggled in 2024, allowing an opposing OPS of .801 that included a .922 second half. Shoulder issues led to two brief Injured List stints; ineffectiveness led to an option to Round Rock at the end of August — his first since coming to Texas in the Lance Lynn trade after the 2020 season.

Here are the mechanics of what happens now:

• Dunning is on outright waivers for 48 hours. During that time, he remains a Ranger and could even pitch in tomorrow night’s exhibition game at Globe Life Field.

• If another MLB team or teams claim Dunning in that time, the one that makes the prevailing claim (based on the reverse order of last season’s winning percentages) takes on his $2.66 million salary.

• If no other team claims him, Texas has the right to send Dunning outright to the minor leagues if it chooses to. He wouldn’t have the right to reject the assignment and opt for free agency, because (1) he’s never been outrighted before and (2) he is short of five years of MLB service time. (Either bullet point would have allowed him to reject.)

It’s a little surprising to me, given that the Rangers have a potential innings issue in light of the injuries to Cody Bradford and Jon Gray and the workload care that the club will factor into deGrom and Tyler Mahle starts. Dunning has had a bad camp (10 runs on 17 hits [including four home runs] and four walks in 11 innings), but having the option meant the Rangers could have optioned him to Round Rock and let him try and work his way back into an effective rhythm.

Apparently, the Rangers determined that was not a likely outcome.

But here’s the other thing: Given Dunning’s challenging spring, it seems likely that no team is going to claim that $2.66 million contract, even though he has the option flexibility. And then he can be outrighted to Round Rock and join the Express staff in time for the start of the season, and still go through that effort to get things going again.

[Paragraph corrected on the CBT impact:] If Dunning gets claimed, it frees up that money — not so important as a cash flow measure as much as to broaden the cushion beneath the CBT line. I’m not suggesting that would pave the way for an offer to late reliever David Robertson, who remains a free agent, but it would certainly be more economically feasible than it was yesterday given the organization’s gameplan to stay under the tax threshold. If nothing else, the added cushion would also give the team more flexibility to take on a contract at trade deadline time.

This also will clear an added spot on the 40-man roster that can be used for someone like RHP Patrick Murphy, RHP Caleb Boushley, OF Kevin Pillar, or OF/2B Sam Haggerty — or someone like Robertson or another team’s player who hits the market in the next couple days.

Interesting move, and if the team weren’t close to the CBT line and in potential need of as many freed-up spots on the 40 than it is, this is probably less likely to have happened.

My gut says Dunning clears and remains a Ranger, though in Triple-A. Either way, he’s a good dude and has carved out a place in this team’s history, and I hope things work out for him long-term.

Another potential development that would have shocked 2023 me.

Evan Carter is apparently healthy as well. The idea that I’d be writing about his roster status as spring training comes to an end — without an injury issue — is almost unbelievable, given how integral he was to the 2023 charge into the playoffs and run to the title.

If you’ve looked at the box scores this spring, you know things haven’t gone well for Carter, and not just against lefties. If you’ve watched any games, you can also see it in his body language. Whether he’s pressing or just disheartened, I don’t know. But he’s not in a good place — and not the player, at the moment, that he’s proven loudly he can be.

Chris Young summed the situation up yesterday: “We haven’t seen the best version of Evan yet. Boch has reminded everybody, both internally and externally, that he missed some time last year. This is hard. It’s hard to just step back in and regain your timing, your rhythm, your tempo, facing the best players in the world.”

Exactly, and that’s why it would be less than shocking if Carter gets optioned to Round Rock himself this week so he can work on finding his groove.

In 41 “A” game plate appearances this spring (he’s also had plenty of them on the backfields in minor-league games), Carter is 6 for 38 (.158) with three walks and 14 strikeouts. He hasn’t had a hit in nine days, over which time he played in four games, going 0 for 13 with seven strikeouts and a walk. In this spring’s small sample, he has a .430 OPS. He’s taking lots of strikes, not always to end an at-bat but in many cases to put him in a two-strike count. He just doesn’t look comfortable.

I’m not hoping for the 22-year-old to get sent out, but I’m absolutely good with anything that could help him rediscover 2023 Evan Carter. It’s missing now.

Other pitching updates.

We covered the rotation in outlook yesterday, right after which Jack Leiter delivered the team’s longest outing of the spring, a six-inning effort (his first as a big leaguer, in real games or exhibitions) in which he allowed three runs on 11 hits and one walk, fanning four. There was lots of traffic, but Leiter worked out of jams more often than not and managed to keep his pitch count at a spiffy 14 per inning. He certainly seems to be in line for a start in the opening series with Boston, likely on Friday night.

And this was interesting:

In today’s game, a 100-mph reading is no longer a story headline, but the fact that Leiter unleashed five pitches at that velocity on Saturday — with only one of them missing the zone — and was still as efficient as he’s ever been at the big-league level is extremely encouraging.

Triple digits is fun. Commanding it is a blast.

Lefthander Patrick Corbin, signed on Tuesday, is expected to throw a sim game tomorrow as the process of evaluating where he is and how soon he can help gets rolling.

Wyatt.

Two things we saw flashes of yesterday that may not mean anything in 2025 — but could beyond that.

First, this:

A couple nights ago, Langford hammered a line drive that the left fielder had to motor toward the line to cut off. With Corey Seager on first base, it was a no-doubt single. Had nobody been on base, it was a surefire double.

Now, if Carter or Leody Taveras or Josh Smith had instead been on first base from the bottom of the order on that play, it’s entirely possible they would have held at second base, too, given where the ball was. But it did make me think about where in the lineup Langford will hit this year — and specifically behind whom. The idea of conceding a base on what would have been a double, or a first-to-third scamper, is one that hangs around in my brain more than it probably should.

Second, this happened in the third inning yesterday (after Langford had homered leading off the first):

Langford, who was among the league leaders in taking the most incorrectly called strikes in 2024 (62 of them!), had the chance yesterday to make sure one incorrect call was corrected. Starting Thursday, he won’t get to do it again in 2025, as the ABS challenge system is being evaluated for possible integration at the MLB level in 2026.

But for a moment on Saturday, it was super refreshing.

A CY story.

Over the winter, I was given the opportunity to take on one of the most challenging and awesome writing assignments I’ve ever had entrusted to me: a deep-dive profile on Chris Young’s life, less about specific moments as a player or as a front office exec than about the foundation of the leadership skills that he developed through his years in two sports, both as an amateur and as a pro.

It’s featured in the Special Edition issue of D CEO, which is available for purchase — and my understanding is that my story will also be available online for free reading tomorrow. I’ll send a link when it’s up.

My editors there have done me an extra solid, as well. I talked to a lot of people from CY’s past to build the story, and because of space constraints a lot of material got necessarily cut. But I’ve been given the go-ahead to publish a lot of the money quotes from those folks that ended up on the cutting-room floor. I’ll do that in this space sometime this week.

Hope you enjoy the story. I had a blast researching and writing it.

Not a Boch story. Yet.

Evan Grant (Dallas Morning News) wrote a story this week suggesting a handful of potential candidates to succeed manager Bruce Bochy whenever it is that he decides to re-retire. Grant’s list:

• Skip Schumaker (whom Grant refers to as “Designated Heir”)

• Bobby Wilson (former Rangers catcher and current big-league catching coach)

• Nick Hundley (senior advisor in baseball operations and former teammate of Young’s)

• Michael Young/Ian Kinsler (both special assistants to GM Ross Fenstermaker — and both of whom Grant labels as “longshot[s] at best”)

• Will Venable (“Never say never,” Grant suggests)

This Week in Roster Reconstruction.

Busy week, as we draw closer to the deadline to cement the Opening Day roster.

• March 18: LHP Patrick Corbin signed to one-year, $1.1 million contract; RHP Jon Gray transferred to 60-day Injured List

• March 18: RHP Gerson Garabito recalled from Triple-A Round Rock

• March 20: RHP Daniel Robert optioned to Triple-A Round Rock

• March 21: OF Dustin Harris optioned to Triple-A Round Rock

• March 21: OF Alejandro Osuna re-assigned to minor-league camp

• March 21: RHP Jesse Chavez and RHP Hunter Strickland released

• March 22: IF Nick Ahmed released

• March 22: RHP Joe Barlow, RHP David Buchanan, RHP J.T. Chargois, RHP Matt Festa, RHP Adrian Houser, C Tucker Barnhart, C Chad Wallach, and IF Alan Trejo re-assigned to minor-league camp

• March 22: RHP Hunter Strickland re-signed to minor-league contract

The following prospects and non-roster invites remain in big-league camp:

• 40-man roster:

  • P: RHP Marc Church, RHP Jack Leiter, RHP Kumar Rocker

• NRI’s:

  • P: RHP Caleb Boushley, RHP Patrick Murphy

  • OF-2B: Sam Haggerty

  • OF: Kevin Pillar

No word on whether Pillar exercised his CBA opt-out yesterday, which would have given the Rangers until tomorrow to add him to the 40-man roster or let him out of his non-roster contract. Perhaps he’s already been told he’s made the team. He’s certainly done everything in camp that could be expected of him — and neither Carter nor Taveras has shown any real progress this month against left-handed pitching.

Houser’s reassignment, as we discussed yesterday, was not only about his work in camp. He has marginally less than six years of major-league service, which means he barely missed qualifying for the March 22 opt-out right. The non-roster contract he negotiated with the Rangers, according to Evan Grant (Dallas Morning News), contains a May 15 opt-out — but until then, the Rangers have the unilateral ability to send him to the farm . . . which they have done. Houser certainly has the track record to pitch his way to Arlington well before that.

Farm stuff.

• Not a lot of farm-related content around the league this week, but as I mentioned yesterday, having made my trip to spring training a couple weeks ago, my work is now complete on the season-opening version of my semi-annual Top 72 Rangers Prospects ranking.

• Now the writeups begin. My plan is to roll these out in 12-player chunks, starting very soon. Likely not this week, with Opening Day this Thursday, but probably the week after that.

A new subscription option.

A reminder: I’m now offering a permanent, lifetime, $1,000 subscription to the Newberg Report, which comes with all of the extras I’ll ever put together for those of you who are “162+” subscribers. Thanks to those of you who have already signed on for it!

We do still have the $7/month plan, the $72/year option, and the premium $200/year “162+” deal, each of which you can sign up for here. If you’re interested in the lifetime arrangement, let me know by email or in the Comments. We can arrange something via PayPal or Venmo or Zelle.

Again, I’m basing the concept on something Joe Sheehan offers his subscribers:

Subscriber note.

Repeating what I shared last Sunday, because I’m still seeing it happening: I’ve seen a bunch of “billing failed” messages in the last few weeks, presumably because we just passed the one-year anniversary of the Substack reboot.

If you (or another former subscriber you know) have been wondering if I’ve stopped writing lately, there could be a billing issue. Would love for you to resubscribe! Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions.

TROT COFFEY!

• In The Athletic’s weekly power rankings, the latest entry entitled “Where is your favorite team starting the 2025 season?” places the Rangers at No. 10, calling them “[o]ne of the hardest teams in baseball to nail down, if not the hardest.”

• Anthony Castrovince (MLB.com) predicts that Rangers will win the AL West, with the Red Sox and Twins taking the other two AL divisions and the Mariners, Rays, and A’s claiming Wild Card spots.

• Sam Blum, Chandler Rome, and Jim Bowden (The Athletic) have the Rangers winning 87 games, one more than division runner-up Houston and four more than Seattle.

• The “Positional Power Rankings” series at FanGraphs continues, with the Rangers’ roster situation ranked as follows, measured against the rest of the league:

  • 2B: No. 1

  • LF: No. 2

  • DH: No. 5

• After the Rangers released Chavez on Friday, the Braves signed him to a minor-league deal on Saturday.

• Reports are that LHP Aroldis Chapman will be the closer for Boston in this week’s opening series in Texas, having beaten out RHP Liam Hendriks and former Rangers minor-league (and Rule 5 loss) RHP Justin Slaten.

• C Liam Hicks, a Rule 5 pick of the Marlins from the Tigers in December, has made Miami’s Opening Day roster. The Rangers traded Hicks in July, along with RHP Tyler Owens, to Detroit for C Carson Kelly.

• The Cardinals optioned IF Thomas Saggese to Triple-A.

• RHP Carson Coleman, returned to the Yankees in November after being taken by Texas in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, was placed on New York’s Triple-A 60-day Injured List.

• The Phillies designated RHP Tyler Phillips for assignment.

• Seattle just released OF Mitch Haniger, who is owed (and will still be paid) $15.5 million this year.

• A really cool story in The Athletic: Max Scherzer’s sixth-grade teacher was Jake Burger’s mother.

• Literally minutes after I sent out last Sunday’s Hops, in which I’d mentioned that the White Sox had released 1B/OF Joey Gallo, he posted this on Twix:

  

• No word yet on which organization is going to give him his first chance to do it. Sounds like he might be the first to let us know.

• Mady and Corey Seager are expecting their first child! I can think of a few people and baseball teams of whom Corey Seager is already the daddy, but now he gets to live with and raise one of his own.

• Awesome. Congrats to the Seagers.