Rangers News: Texas signs former closer, Josh Sborz injury, Dane Dunning update

At this point, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that the Texas Rangers are going to start taking volunteers from the stands to start throwing some innings for them. While the offense has certainly taken their fair share of lumps on the injury front, the Rangers' pitching staff has been absolutely devastated by injuries in 2024, with Dane Dunning the latest arm to need an IL stint (more on him in a bit).

Given all of injuries and the fact that Jack Leiter's second look at the big leagues on Wednesday also didn't go particularly well, Texas is remaining vigilant in looking for opportunities to add some pitching depth, and did so on on Wednesday when they signed Kyle Barraclough to a minor-league deal.

Barraclough was once a very good reliever with the Marlins, but has struggled with his command in recent years as he has bounced around the league. Notably, Barraclough did do some starting in the minor leagues last year, but the best bet is that the Rangers nabbed him to give them some relief help.

Texas Rangers News: Josh Sborz leaves game early with shoulder injury

One of the nicer bits of news recently for the Rangers was that Josh Sborz had returned from the injured list after dealing with a strained rotator cuff. However, Sborz's appearance against Oakland went sideways in a hurry and he was forced to leave the game with what was described as shoulder tightness.

While fans are hoping that Sborz's injury isn't major, he clearly wasn't right on Wednesday with his velocity being way off and he couldn't command his pitches basically at all. We'll know more once he can get examined and scanned, but Rangers fans should probably expect him to land on the injured list based on what we saw in that game.

Texas Rangers News: Dane Dunning appears to have avoided major shoulder injury

After getting word that Nathan Eovaldi's groin injury wasn't considered major, it was pretty brutal to find out almost immediately that Dan Dunning needed to go on the shelf with a shoulder injury. Shoulder injuries are uniquely spooky for pitchers as they can take a long time to heal in a lot of cases and surgical interventions often can't get them back to 100% if they are severe. Luckily, that doesn't sound like it's the case with Dunning.

Dunning spoke to reporters on Wednesday about his situation and he indicated that his issue is more a case of dead arm than a more serious structural problem. The Rangers are just taking extra precautions with Dunning given his injury history and how important it is that he is able to pitch the rest of the season, but manager Bruce Bochy seemed optimistic that Dunning should be ready to go as soon as he sits out the required 15 days.

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