MLB Rumors: Lance Lynn, Cardinals Agree to Contract in Free Agency After Dodgers Exit

After the Los Angeles Dodgers declined his contract option at the start of the offseason, Lance Lynn has reportedly landed on his feet with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Per ESPN's Jeff Passan, Lynn has agreed to a one-year, $10 millionmillion contract with the Cardinals.

With this deal, Lynn returns to where his professional career began.

A first-round pick of the Cardinals in 2008, Lynn debuted for St. Louis in 2011 and remained with the club through 2017. He went 72-47 with a 3.38 ERA in 193 appearances for the team, winning a World Series title in 2011 and earning an All-Star nod in 2012.

Lynn split the 2023 season between the Chicago White Sox and Dodgers. He started the year in Chicago and was on pace to have the worst season of his career with a 6.47 ERA in 21 starts before being traded to Los Angeles on July 28.

The Dodgers got a slightly better performance from Lynn down the stretch. He had a 4.36 ERA in 11 starts after the deal, but home-run issues persisted in both places. The right-hander led all pitchers in total homers allowed (44) and homers per nine innings (2.16).

In his lone start of the postseason for the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLDS, Lynn allowed four solo homers in the bottom of the third inning in a 4-2 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks became the first team in MLB playoff history with four home runs in an inning. Lynn is one of 13 pitchers in history to allow at least four homers in a postseason game.

Lynn would have been owed $18 million in 2024, but instead received a $1 million buyout when the Dodgers declined his option on Nov. 5.

While Lynn isn't hitting the free-agent market at a great time for himself, there are reasons to be optimistic that 2023 was merely a speed bump.

From 2019 to '22, Lynn had a 3.42 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 635 strikeouts in 571 innings over 95 starts. He was seventh among all pitchers with 14.4 FanGraphs wins above replacement during that span.

If that's the hopeful view, the pessimistic outlook will point to Lynn being 36 years old and a fastball-heavy pitcher whose heater has lost more than two miles per hour from 2019 (94.6) to 2023 (92.4).

Even if Lynn doesn't return to his pre-2023 form, he does have value as a starter who will take the ball every fifth day. The two-time All-Star has thrown at least 150 innings in five of the past seven seasons, excluding the 60-game 2020 season and 2022 when a knee injury kept him out for two months.

The Cardinalsare almost certainly betting on Lynn simply as a back-of-the-rotation starter or long reliever out of the bullpen, with the hope there may be a little more left in the tank coming off a rough 2023.