After finishing 2023 with a 71-91 record, the St. Louis Cardinals enter the offseason with many question marks but none are bigger than their pitching staff.
With four pitchers gone from their rotation, they will need to find multiple starters to replace those innings with.
On Monday they made their first move in their journey to rebuild their rotation, agreeing to a one-year, $10M deal with pitcher Lance Lynn.
Lynn spent the first six seasons of his career with the Cardinals posting a 72-47 record with a 3.38 ERA and 919 SO in 977.2 innings pitched, while winning one World Series and making one All-Star team during his tenure.
His 2023 season was one to forget, Lynn was one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball with a 13-11 record and a 5.73 ERA in 183.2 innings pitched.
Lynn led the league in home runs allowed with 44, tied for the fourth most in MLB history and his 189 hits allowed ranked fifth in baseball.
His new Cardinals teammate pitcher Miles Mikolas, was the league leader with 226 hits allowed.
Before his blow-up in 2023, Lynn had been a very serviceable pitcher going 41-27 with a 3.42 ERA while striking out 635 batters in 571 innings pitched from 2019-2022.
While this signing should be viewed as just a minor addition with bigger ones on the horizon, the faith in the front office to get the job done isn’t what it used to be in St. Louis and it is feeling the heat.
The Cardinals will need to be active in the market with pitchers Blake Snell and Sonny Gray on the market, as well as pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga being posted from their league in Japan.
Without landing one of those four it will be hard for them to consider this offseason a success unless they can find pitching help through trade.
