By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | Nov. 10, 2015, 4:35 pm CT
The Cardinals will be without one of their most reliable starters over the past few years when they kick off the 2016 season, as the team announced Tuesday afternoon that right-hander Lance Lynn will miss the entirety of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow earlier in the day.
During the procedure, Lynn also had his ulnar nerve transposed and bone chips removed from his elbow. The club had given no previous indication that Lynn could require any such procedure.
Despite dealing with a strained forearm and an ankle injury at various times throughout the year, the 28-year-old Lynn made 31 starts for the redbirds in 2015, finishing with a 12-11 record and 3.03 ERA over 175 innings, the first time since 2012 he failed to surpass 200 innings.
A first-round pick by the Cardinals in the 2008 Draft, Lynn has pitched in 150 games (128 starts) over his five seasons with the club, posting a cumulative 61-39 record with a 3.37 ERA. Lynn’s 60 wins since the start of the 2012 season are sixth most in the majors, trailing only Max Scherzer (69), Clayton Kershaw (67), Zack Greinke (66), Madison Bumgarner (65), and David Price (63).
Inked to a three-year, $22 million deal last offseason, Lynn is set to make $7.5 million each of the next two years.
Lynn’s absence in 2016 will undoubtedly have a substantial impact on the season, as well as GM John Mozeliak’s plan this offseason. After extending a qualifying offer to John Lackey last week, the Cardinals could push hard to resign the veteran to join a rotation which appears set to include Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez, and Jaime Garcia, each of whom comes with their own injury/performance risks.
The news almost certainly means the redbirds will be major players in both the free agent and trade markets as they search for rotation upgrades, and Mozeliak acknowledged on Tuesday (via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) that the injury to Lynn does alter the club’s offseason plan.
The loss of Lynn marks the second major dent in the Cardinals’ offseason, as top pitching prospect Alex Reyes was suspended 50 games on Monday for a second positive test for a drug of abuse.
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Featured image used under Creative Commons from Keith Allison. No changes made. Image license.
