Lance Lynn for Dane Dunning and Avery Weems deal is official

The Texas Rangers have traded pitcher Lance Lynn to the Chicago White Sox for pitchers Dane Dunning and Avery Weems, it was announced today. So the deal that was reported late last night as having been agreed to is now official, and Lance Lynn is no longer a Texas Ranger.

Lynn was expected to be dealt at the 2020 trade deadline, and the Rangers not dealing him came as a major surprise, although Ken Rosenthal reported this morning that Lynn’s willingness to opt out of the remainder of 2020 if he didn’t approve of where he was dealt was apparently a significant factor.

Dunning is on the 40 man roster and Weems is not, so the 40 man roster, which trumps all, remains at 38. Dunning will, I suspect, be in the Rangers’ rotation to start 2021, joining Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles. My guess is that the Rangers will sign at least one other veteran of the relatively low-ceiling, low-risk variety who can provide some innings, and avoid a situation where the Rangers are forcing some of the young starting pitching options into the rotation unnecessarily.

I wrote about Dunning and Weems earlier today, and interestingly, John Blake says that Weems was ranked #24 on the Baseball America Chicago White Sox top 30 prospect list. Only the top 10 is online, and I didn’t realize the full top 30 was available anywhere, but I guess when you’re John Blake you’ve got the hook-ups.