Mariners jump into roster culling mode with starter for Cactus League opener

The Seattle Mariners have announced their starting pitcher for their Cactus League opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday, and it's not exactly one of the headliners. It's Dane Dunning, who's best known as a guy who was briefly A Guy for the Texas Rangers a few years back.

Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times was among those who passed along the news:

The Mariners picked up Dunning, a 31-year-old right-hander, on a minor league contract a little less than a month ago. It seemed innocuous until about a week later, when Seattle lost Logan Evans for the season to elbow surgery. With that, Dunning took a step up in the "next man up" conversation for the rotation.

Mind you, Dunning is in Peoria as a non-roster invitee. As spring training counts down to a culling of dozens of players until a final roster of 26 men is formulated, it makes sense to pass the early reps to the guys who aren't even on the 40-man roster. You have to see what they can do.

Mariners tab Dane Dunning to lead their spring training rotation

Dunning last pitched for the Atlanta Braves in 2025, for whom he gave up 15 hits and 13 runs (12 earned) in a span of just 49 batters faced. It was a bitter end for a bitter season, most of which was spent in Triple-A for the former first-round pick from 2016.

Even so, Dunning is just three years removed from a 2023 season in which he gave the Rangers a 3.70 ERA over 172.2 innings. He also saw action in the playoffs, which ended with him and Texas doing something the Mariners have never done before: win the World Series.

However, there never was much reason to believe Dunning's success from 2023 would last. Maybe nobody expected an ERA in the 5.00s for his next two seasons, but… well, here we are.

The 6-foot-5, 225-pounder at least has good extension that makes him a good fit for the Mariners. The question is whether there's any more to be mined from his sinker/cutter combo, or if maybe he can survive (thrive, even) on a different pitch mix.

Whatever the case, Friday is the day we'll begin to find out. And since the Mariners only have so much time before they need to start making cuts, a good first impression could only help buy Dunning some time.

If anyone had been expecting Bryan Woo or Logan Gilbert to lead the Mariners out of the gate on Friday, well, that's a you problem. Those two and the other three members of the starting five have nothing to prove this spring, save for that they can make it to Opening Day in one piece.