In writing this headline, I don’t mean to say that Danner’s career is over. The Ice Cream Man spent the 2025 season with Tacoma, the AAA affiliate of your Seattle Mariners, where he went 6-4, 5.59 with decent K/W data. That said, Danner got a taste of the big leagues in 2023 – but just the sample spoon – and hasn’t been back since. Here’s hoping he can put it together for one more run. Until then, here’s a quick summary of how he got there…

Hagen Jarrell Danner was born September 30, 1998 in Newport Beach, California and gained stardom at an early age as a member of the Ocean View (CA) Little League team that won the Little League World Series in 2011. He went 2-0 as a pitcher and even hit a homer in the championship game against Japan. (His best friend, Nick Pratto, hit the game winner in that game.)

Danner played for Huntington Beach, HS and was a Los Angeles area player of the year, a fine draft prospect, and had a scholarship to play at UCLA – except that he (and three other former Little League World Series alums including Pratto) were drafted by major league teams. Danner was taken by Toronto in the second round – and then had to decide if the versatile Danner would be a pitcher or a catcher.

At first, Danner donned the catching gear. In three years behind the plate, he had one decent season (in 2018 he hit 279 with an .841 OPS at Bluefield in the Appalachian League), but having fallen well below that moved to the mound after the 2019 season. Like many minor leaguers, Danner lost time to the pandemic in 2020, so his minor league career as a pitcher didn’t start in earnest until 2021. Then he missed most of 2022 to an elbow injury. He returned in 2023 and pitched well enough at three levels (56/11 K/W rate in 39.1 innings) to earn the call to the majors. Toronto brought Danner in to face the Cubs in the ninth inning of the August 11, 2023 game with the Blue Jays trailing 6 – 2. The first batter, Seiya Suzuki, lined to George Springer in right field for an out. Yan Gomes fell behind 0 – 2 when Danner fired a fastball wild and high, following a second pitch above the zone, Danner’s next pitch also went high. Afterward, Danner clutched at his back – and left the game with a strained oblique.

Click here to watch Danner’s complete debut.

What you will notice is that Danner threw seven pitches before being lifted for a reliever (Jay Jackson, who promptly gave up a line double to Gomes but got the last two outs without allowing a run). In the box score, Danner is credited with seven pitches; four strikes and three balls. But, because he didn’t finish that second batter – Baseball-Reference’s game log shows him with having thrown just two pitches. That can’t be right – it’s got to be an odd interpretation of StatCast data or something from the MLB feed. (I’ll send them a note to see what’s up.)

Danner completed his season on the injured list. His 2024 season was pretty good at AAA Buffalo – but not good enough to earn a second call. Seattle claimed Danner off of waivers prior to the 2025 season and was added to the 40-man roster. However, he didn’t make the team out of spring training and was dispatched to Tacoma where he appears to be organizational depth.

Here’s to Hagen’s getting a second shot at the majors.