Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak recently met with starting pitcher Lance Lynn to discuss Lynn’s future with the team, which is “fluid,” Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The Rockies, Royals and perhaps Astros could have interest in Lynn, so a trade is possible, particularly if the 47-49 Cardinals fall further out of the playoff race. But they could also keep him and make a run at the playoffs. Lynn has played with the Cardinals throughout his six-year career. This season, he has a 3.30 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 114 innings. He’s eligible for free agency next winter. Here’s more from the NL Central.
- The Pirates have announced that they’ve placed outfielder Gregory Polanco on the 10-day DL with a hamstring strain. To take his place on the active roster, they’ve promoted lefty Steven Brault from Triple-A Indianapolis. Polanco left Friday’s game against the Rockies due to hamstring trouble. Polanco got off to a slow start this season but has hit .387/.406/.629, his hot streak roughly corresponding with the Bucs’ recent streak of winning play as a team. The Pirates have John Jaso, Jose Osuna and Adam Frazier to man the corner outfield while Polanco is out.
- The Reds completed the most crucial stage of their rebuild in the last 13 months, Zach Buchanan and C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer write. “You say talent acquisition is part of the rebuild,” says GM Dick Williams. “It really is the rebuild. That’s what it is all about, dedicating as much of our resources as we can to a large influx of talent in a short period of time.” They’ve had two strong draft classes led by 2016 first-rounder Nick Senzel and 2017 second overall pick Hunter Greene, and they’ve spent heavily on Latin American players like Victor Ruiz, Vladimir Gutierrez, Alfredo Rodriguez and Jose Israel Garcia.
Send Lynn off to highest bidder and bring up Weaver.
Theyd have to get an offer they think is better than any comp pick theyd get for him signing elsewhere. And as long as there’s any hope to this season the cardinals will need him, he’s their #2 starter after martinez.
Lynn is better than Weaver
I would offer Lynn to Dodgers for Puig…. one for one! Kershaw out… they might be serious shoppers for another starter…
Another deal which would make sense.. Carpenter to Yankees for Betances. That solves the closer issue!
“Make a run at the playoffs” who’s smoking all the crack? 0 chance the Cardinals make the playoffs. 0. -0 infinity
3.5 out of first I wouldn’t say they have zero chance.
Exactly. They may not deserve it, but they are a good week from the playoffs.
Cardinals may not see the playoffs for many years. Dark days ahead for that organization
Nope never happen. They compete every year but no team wins every year. Way too young with lots of talent and great starting pitching for dark days a head.
It’s been a noticeable decline ever since TLR stopped calling the shots, and that means playing GM too. The manager can’t develops himself so how can he develop players. MM won because TLR left him players that would run things. Now they are gone and baseball has changed. This team is doomed if they don’t make an impact move for a legit bat and an impact move for an impact manager.
They just won 100 games a couple of years ago….4 years after TLR left.
They are fine. They are transitioning from an older core to a younger one. It’s not immediate.
That’s just hater talk. They have starting pitching and several good prospects in the lower minors. Not to mention the new TV deal about to kick in.
Agreed! Too many crapping signings by Mo! Cecil, Leake, Fowler… to name a few! And like it or not.. Yadi signing was a huge mistake too! The bottom of the NL central is in the future for the Cardinals if they dont start to shake things up!
Cincy still can’t develop starting pitchers at all.
It’s the ball park it ruins their mind set.
How did you come to that conclusion?
Just that it’s homer haven. It has to make a dent in a developing pitcher’s mentality.
I think I’ve heard the park being referred to, in the past, as the Great American launch pad?
Great American Small Park
Johnny Cueto, Mike Leake, and Edinson Volquez were pretty good. It’s not the developing part they can’t do it’s the money part they can’t pay.
Look who’s starting today, he HAD ace like “potential”, now, he’s either a mop up guy or a throw away starter.
Stephenson is 24 y/o… his development on track.
I don’t think the reds developed Leake. ASU did. Volquez came from Texas.
Add Aaron Harang, Travis Wood, Homer Bailey pre-TJ to that list as well. They can develop them, just can’t keep them long term or keep them.
I think Oakland gets the credit for Harang. Wood with 135 starts and more relief appearances isn’t a ringing endorsement. Since Tom Browning in the mid 1980s you have Cueto and Bailey.
Cueto and Bailey. Then you have to go back to Brett Tomko in 1997. Who says the Reds don’t develop starting pitching?
Look at how many “talented” guys they’ve called up to start that have: 1. Had one good season, or just appeared, then missed months and months with injury and were never the same. 2. Were awful and ended up in Triple A or were cast off. 3. Ended up in the bullpen.
No one is saying they “don’t” develop ML, quality starting pitchers..If they are, that’s just a dumb statement alltogether..because it insinuates they simply cannot and have not been able to develop anyone…Which we all know just is not true
The correct way to put it, is the Reds just struggle to consistently develop ML-quality starting pitchers…
Although, it isn’t like there are truly very many franchises that DO consistently draft/sign and develop solid, ML starting pitchers. There are even fewer teams, maybe a handful or so, that are actually able to re-sign and can afford to hang onto their own homegrown pitchers.
How are the reds worse than any other team at pitcher development?
I believe the original post said the Reds “still can’t develop starting pitchers at all”…. that’s really the whole basis of the conversation here.
From 2011 to 2014 at least 3/5 of their starting rotation were homegrown pitchers with an era under 4. In 2010 4/5 of their rotation was homegrown. I could go on, but whats the point. There is no evidence to support the notion that the Reds can’t develop starting pitchers.
Name four home grown reds starters in 2010. Arroyo came from Boston, Pittsburgh. Leake never spent a day in the reds farm system. Harang came from Oakland. Volquez came from Texas. Cueto, Bailey and Travis Wood were developed by the Reds.
Leake went to instructional league, then the AFL (where the Reds had the pitching coach), then to spring training with the Reds guys, then the Majors. And then he cut nearly a run off of his ERA over the next few years. They developed him, even if it didn’t all happen in the minor leagues. Either way, you still haven’t provided any evidence to support your argument.
This is the most disappointing part of the rebuild by far. Pitchers are supposed to be Price’s bead and butter and he’s had no success to point to in three years as a manager.
Talent acquisition? Like what the Reds got from the Yankees for a year of Chapman?
Good thing they couldn’t flip him for more than they paid…
They should’ve just held onto Chapman until after his suspension, selling low on a top ten reliever like him, even if he’s not just as good these past few weeks, was a terrible idea.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing because you can coulda, shoulda, woulda everything.
Domestic Abuse isn’t a joke, they knew a suspension would be imminent and even with a guy of Chapman’s stature it’s hard to predict how many teams are going to stand up and jump to the front of the line to acquire a guy with that on his resume, different sports I know but Ray Rice is still unemployed and was a damn good running back prior to his situation.
It’s easy to say today that the Reds should have waited but I don’t think anybody knew how the landscape of baseball would take to his legal issue, if the Reds knew that nobody would care like they have shown then they would have gotten back a lot more than they did. Can’t blame them for selling him early because it was a very unprecedented and unpredictable situation.
It was not unpredictable at all and to compare it to the Ray Rice situation is laughable.
Reds panicked. Reds read it wrong. Reds played it wrong. Reds made a horrible trade. Own it and move on.
Would the Rockies trade Ryan McMahon for Lance Lynn?
It still hasn’t been determined if the Cardinals are selling or buying, so I can’t say they will trade Lynn. It makes sense to me either way
Impeccable insight.
Royals just sent down Soler… Maybe an offer of OH to KC could land Soler… its a gamble.. but Soler could develop into a real keeper!