Do Glenn Otto, Dane Dunning Still Have Futures With Rangers?

The Texas Rangers made a big push for starting pitching, but it leaves Glenn Otto and Dane Dunning on the outside looking in.

The Texas Rangers invested nearly $100 million for the 2023 season in veteran starting pitching.

That puts two of last year’s starting pitchers — Dane Dunning and Glenn Otto — in an odd position. The Rangers now have six veteran starters, and unless the club wants to completely upend the baseball world and use a seven- or eight-man rotation, the pair are on the outside looking in.

So what’s the plan for Dunning and Otto? For now, Rangers general manager Chris Young said the plan is to treat them as starters.

“I think we’ll go into camp building up those two guys as starters,” Young said.

Otto pitched his first full season in the Majors in 2022 and was one of the four players the Rangers got in return for Joey Gallo in 2021.

Otto made just about every start he was scheduled to make for the Rangers, going 7-10 with a 4.64 ERA. Otto ended up winning as many games as Jon Gray, the Rangers’ top free-agent pitching acquisition last offseason.

Otto showed improvement in one key area at the end of last season — walk reduction. He closed out his final seven starts by walking two or fewer in every start. In fact, he struck out 33 and walked eight in that span. His opponent batting average of .236 was a 100-point drop from 2021, when he only started a handful of games.

Dunning, meanwhile, set career highs in several categories, including pitching more than 150 innings for the first time. But he also gave up a career-high 20 home runs. He ended up with a 4-8 record with a 4.46 ERA as he started at least 25 games for the second straight season.

But his season ended on the injured list after hip surgery. Young says there is no question Dunning will be ready for Spring Training next week.

“(Dunning) had a great offseason,” Young said. “I saw him last week. He looks wonderful. He’s in shape and his hip is feeling great.”

The question about what the Rangers will do with Otto and Dunning can’t be answered now. It will have to be answered in Surprise, as pitchers and catchers report in a week.

The Rangers started the offseason with one veteran starter under contract in Gray.

Once free agency began, the Rangers got to work. Martín Pérez was retained on a one-year deal. The Rangers traded for Jake Odorizzi. Then the Rangers signed three new starters, including the top free-agent on the market in Jacob deGrom. The Rangers also signed Andrew Heaney and Nathan Eovaldi.

The Rangers hope all six will be ready when Opening Day comes around in late March. But, as Young noted, injuries can happen, especially with five veteran starters who missed time last year due to injury.

That’s part of the reason the Rangers, for now, are treating Otto and Dunning as potential starters. But Young is leaving the door ajar on different roles for both, depending upon what happens.

“We’ll build them both up,” Young said. “I think they could both be realistic contributors to our team in multiple roles, so that will sort itself out as we get through camp.”

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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