Report: Mariners sign RHP Dobnak to minors deal
Nov 11, 2025, 12:55 PM
The Seattle Mariners and right-hander Randy Dobnak have agreed to a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported late Tuesday morning.
Free Agency: Who Seattle Mariners could target for the bullpen
The 30-year-old Dobnak has a 9-12 record with a 4.86 ERA and 1.37 WHIP over 140 2/3 innings pitched in 39 appearances (21 starts) across five big league seasons. He appeared in one game for the Minnesota Twins in 2025, allowing one run on two hits and two walks while striking out one over 5 2/3 innings of relief.
A native of South Park, Pa., Dobnak went undrafted out of NCAA Division II Alderson Broaddus University in 2017. He signed a minor-league deal with the Twins that August.
Dobnak made his MLB debut in 2019, making five starts and pitching in nine total games while posting a 1.59 ERA over 28 1/3 innings for Minnesota. He had a 4.05 ERA over 10 starts for the Twins during the COVID-shorted 2020 campaign, which led to a five-year, $9.25 million contract extension with club options for 2026, 2027 and 2028.
However, injuries started to derail Dobnak’s career in 2021. He suffered a ruptured pulley in his right middle finger – a ligament injury most commonly associated with rock climbing – that forced him to miss nearly all of the final three months of the season. He ruptured a different pulley in the same finger before the start of spring training the following year.
According to multiple reports, Dobnak’s finger injuries made it difficult to replicate his sinker, which had been his most-used pitch. After returning from the injury in 2022, he didn’t pitch in the majors again until making five relief appearances for the Twins in 2024.
Minnesota traded Dobnak and right-hander Chris Paddack to the Detroit Tigers for catcher Enrique Jimenez on July 28 of this year. Dobnak was assigned to Triple-A the following day and never pitched in the majors for the Tigers, who declined his $6 million club option for 2026 earlier this month.
Dobnak features a four-pitch mix with a sinker, four-seamer, slider and changeup, per Baseball Savant. His fastballs averaged 92.1 mph in his lone major league appearance this season.
Seattle Mariners offseason coverage
• Mariners Offseason Roundtable: Drayer, Salk and Rowland-Smith
• M’s GM Hollander sounds very serious about Josh Naylor pursuit
• Why Seattle Mariners are one of MLB’s ‘most fascinating’ teams this offseason
• Power-hitting infielder Munetaka Murakami enters MLB posting system
• Morosi: What it could cost Seattle Mariners to re-sign Jorge Polanco
