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Cardinals Rumors: Front Office, Gibson, Kittredge

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It’s been another disappointing season for the Cardinals and their fans — one that has manifested in manners not previously seen at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals announced over the weekend that the season-long attendance clocked in at 2.8 million fans. As Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat points out, that marks the first time since Busch Stadium III opened in 2006 that the Cards have sold fewer than three million tickets in a season.

Jones adds that the Cardinals are expected to host an end-of-season press conference as soon as next Monday, writing that “staffing changes which stretch from the front office to the dugout” are “likely” to be announced. There’s no firm indication yet that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, general manager Mike Girsch or manager Oli Marmol are on the chopping block, but there’s been ample speculation regarding Mozeliak’s future recently. He’s signed through the 2025 season. Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch opines that it’s time for chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. to make a change and move on from Mozeliak — the longest-tenured baseball ops leader in the NL (and second-longest in the sport, behind Yankees GM Brian Cashman).

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggested last week that former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, whom the Cardinals hired as a senior adviser this past offseason, would have a larger role in baseball operations next year and could even overtake the top spot on the baseball operations hierarchy. Hochman suggests a similar outcome, calling Bloom a natural successor to Mozeliak.

As rumblings of changes up the ladder mount, there are players in the clubhouse hoping for some continuity. Right-hander Kyle Gibson tells the Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold that he hopes the Cardinals pick up his $12MM option for the 2025 season rather than pay the $1MM buyout and send him back to free agency. Gibson could command similar or perhaps even greater earnings on the open market after a season in which he’s pitched 165 2/3 innings of 4.13 ERA ball with a 20.8% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 44.8% grounder rate. However, Gibson is a Missouri native who starred for the University of Missouri in college and makes his offseason home in the St. Louis area.

Goold lays out that Gibson has not only performed well on the field but taken up a key leadership role in the clubhouse. He’s rarely missed bullpen sessions for young pitchers and has been a mentor for Matthew Liberatore, Andre Pallante and others. The catching corps has cited Gibson as a huge part of the team’s game-planning, even for games he’s not pitching. Readers can check out Goold’s piece for a fascinating self-analysis from Gibson on a mistake he made to Jose Ramirez in his most recent appearance. The breakdown makes it easy to quickly glean the thoughtful approach Gibson takes to his opponents and see how his experience could benefit those around him — particularly younger pitchers and catchers.

The Cardinals have Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Erick Fedde all signed through next season. Gibson and fellow righty Lance Lynn have 2025 club options on their contracts. Of the two, Gibson seems likelier to have his option exercised. Keeping Gray, Mikolas, Gibson, Fedde and Matz would give the Cards a veteran quintet on which to lean. In-house names like Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Quinn Mathews and Sem Robberse (among others) would be waiting in the wings should injuries or continued struggles from Mikolas and/or Matz prompt changes.

Like Gibson, righty Andrew Kittredge is open to a St. Louis reunion. The 34-year-old setup man is a pure free agent and doesn’t have an option on his contract, but he tells Goold he would “definitely” be interested in coming back. Though the team’s results haven’t been what the clubhouse hoped, it’s not for any lack of effort in the clubhouse, Kittredge says: “I don’t have anything negative to say about any player in this clubhouse. Everyone comes to play every day, and I like to be a part of teams like that.”

The Cards reportedly plan to approach Kittredge about a re-signing him. The right-hander set a Cardinals franchise record when he secured his 36th hold of the season recently. He’s posted a terrific 2.93 ERA with sharp strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates of 23.2%, 7.2% and 44.4%, respectively. He’s not throwing quite as hard as he did prior to undergoing Tommy John surgery with the Rays, but Kittredge’s 94.7 mph average sinker still has plenty of life, even if it’s down nearly a mile per hour from peak levels.

Cardinals To Activate Lance Lynn On Wednesday

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The Cardinals are planning to activate right-hander Lance Lynn from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday, as noted by The Athletic’s Katie Woo. Lynn will take the ball for a start against the Reds in St. Louis when he returns to action. The veteran right-hander has been on the injured list for just over a month due to a bout of knee inflammation.

Lynn, 37, pitched decently enough for the Cardinals in 21 starts prior to going on the IL. In 106 1/3 innings of work, he posted a roughly league average 4.06 ERA (105 ERA+) with a 4.46 FIP and a 20.8% strikeout rate. Lynn pitched quite well for St. Louis throughout the first half but his numbers took a sharp turn for the worse in July, when he pitched to a 6.27 ERA and 7.04 FIP in just 18 2/3 innings of work across four starts.

Even with that ghastly performance in his last four starts before hitting the IL, however, his overall numbers this season are much better than they were in 2023 and roughly comparable to the 2022 campaign, when he posted a 3.99 ERA (99 ERA+) and 3.82 FIP in 21 starts. While the veteran right-hander is no longer close to the same pitcher who posted a sterling 3.26 ERA (146 ERA+) and 3.39 FIP with a 27.5% strikeout rate and three consecutive top-6 finishes in AL Cy Young award voting from 2019 to 2021, he’s still proven to be a capable back-end rotation option after a disastrous 2023 season where he struggled to a 5.73 ERA (77 ERA+) with a 5.53 FIP in 183 2/3 innings of work.

Given Lynn’s value as a steady back-of-the-rotation arm and the Cardinals’ lack of starting pitching depth headed into 2025, it’s no surprise that the club would want Lynn to make a few starts down the stretch as they evaluate whether to pick up their $12MM option on his services for next year or decline the option in favor of a $1MM buyout. They have an identical decision on their hands regarding fellow veteran righty Kyle Gibson, who has pitched to a 4.39 ERA (97 ERA+) with a 4.26 FIP in 26 starts with the club during his age-36 season this year.

With those decisions looming after the season comes to a close, the Cardinals also figure to use the last few weeks of the season to evaluate right-hander Andre Pallante’s viability as a long-term rotation option for the club. The 25-year-old’s 4.07 ERA (105 ERA+) and 4.08 FIP aren’t especially spectacular, but he’s looked very impressive since moving from the bullpen to the rotation in late May with a 3.81 ERA and 4.00 FIP in his last 87 1/3 innings of work spread across 16 starts. Staff ace Sonny Gray and longtime veteran Miles Mikolas both appear to be entrenched in their current rotation roles as well, and that’s left southpaw Steven Matz as the odd man out of the club’s rotation picture.

According to Woo, the lefty is set to be available out of the bullpen starting tomorrow, after making just one start since returning from a lengthy trip to the injured list that wiped out four months of his 2024 campaign. The 33-year-old signed with the Cardinals on a four-year, $44MM deal prior to the 2022 season but that contract hasn’t panned out as he’s struggled to a 4.61 ERA (98 ERA+) despite a solid 3.98 FIP. He’s also been limited to just 185 1/3 innings of work over the past three years by injuries and multiple moves to the bullpen, and figures to act as a back-end rotation option and long relief arm for the club once again in 2025, depending on the needs of the roster and the lefty’s performance.

Cardinals Notes: Matz, Lynn, Siani

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Veteran lefty Steven Matz has missed most of the 2024 season due to back issues, including a setback in his rehab back in June as he was building up his pitch toward a return to the big leagues. Fortunately for the Cardinals, however, it appears the southpaw is once again nearing a return.

As noted by MLB.com’s John Denton, manager Oli Marmol told reporters yesterday afternoon that Matz, who had pitched four scoreless frames on 76 pitches the night prior, was nearing a return to the big leagues. Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch added that the Cardinals currently plan to have Matz return to St. Louis to be evaluated by the team’s medical staff before they decide whether or not he should return to the big league staff immediately, though (per Denton) Marmol indicated that the veteran is likely to make one more rehab start before returning to the majors.

The 33-year-old could provide some relief for a rotation that has struggled somewhat this season, with only Sonny Gray providing consistently above-average performances. Gray has posted decent results with excellent peripherals as the club’s top starter, with a 3.93 ERA (109 ERA+) and a 3.14 FIP in 22 starts this year. Andre Pallante has been another bright spot, impressing in 13 starts this year with a 3.75 ERA and nearly-matching 3.76 FIP since entering a rotation role in late May despite a lackluster 18.8% strikeout rate in those contests.

Looking beyond that duo, however, the results have left much to be desired. Miles Mikolas has posted a 5.41 ERA that’s 21% worse than league average by ERA+ and is the worst figure he’s posted in a season since returning to stateside ball in 2018 following a stint in Japan, while Lance Lynn had struggled to a 4.78 ERA with a 4.66 FIP in his last ten starts before going on the injured list with right knee inflammation at the end of July. St. Louis had spent much of this season leaning on Kyle Gibson for back-of-the-rotation consistency and attempted to fortify their rotation by adding Erick Fedde at the trade deadline, but the pair have posted ERAs of 6.11 and 5.63 respectively since the calendar flipped to August.

Of course, Matz is hardly a sure bet to provide quality innings out of the rotation himself. The lefty’s Cardinals tenure has been a bumpy one, as he posted a 5.25 ERA in 48 innings during his first season with the club and followed that up with a 5.72 ERA in his first ten starts last year. Those struggles ultimately left him demoted to the bullpen last summer, though he managed to pitch his way back into a rotation role down the stretch and posted excellent numbers (a 1.84 ERA and a 31.2% strikeout rate) in seven starts after being reinstated as a starter. That strong finish last year left plenty of reason for optimism regarding Matz entering this year, but in six starts before being sidelined back in May he struggled badly with a 6.18 ERA.

While some of those difficulties can surely be attributed to the small sample size and an inflated .362 BABIP posted by Matz’s opponents this year, that Matz struck out just 13.7% of batters prior to going on the shelf is cause for at least some concern. If Matz looks good upon his return, it’s easy to imagine him sticking in the club’s rotation mix for the rest of the season, although it’s also possible he’ll find himself back in the bullpen at some point.

Lynn’s impending return, which could potentially come even more quickly than that of Matz, also figures to play a role in the Cardinals’ rotation decisions. The veteran right-hander has been sidelined for nearly three weeks by knee inflammation but is slowly approaching a return to action, with Marmol telling reporters (including Worthy) that Matz is expected to throw a live bullpen session early this week. That’s a notable step forward for the 37-year-old, particularly because Marmol left the door open (as noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker) for the righty to return to action later in the week without a rehab assignment if his upcoming session goes well.

With both Lynn and Matz seemingly nearing returns to action, the Cardinals figure to have an excess of rotation options from which they can decide how best to line up for the stretch run as they look to push their way back into postseason contention after going just 4-10 so far in the month of August. In addition to the pitching reinforcements the club expects to get, Denton notes that the club’s run prevention apparatus could be getting a lift in center field in the near future as standout defender Michael Siani has already resumed swinging a bat after being sidelined by an oblique strain just two weeks ago. Siani recently received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his abdomen to aid his return to action, which could come before the end of the month if he continues to progress quickly.

Cardinals Select Michael McGreevy, Place Lance Lynn On IL, DFA Jacob Bosiokovic

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12:04 PM: Speaking to reporters (including John Denton), Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol explained that McGreevy was called up because the team presumed Lynn would need an IL stint for his knee. However, the skipper noted that Pallante, not McGreevy, will remain in the rotation while Lynn is out. The team does not believe the injury is especially serious (per Katie Woo), and it is not expected to require surgery (per Jeff Jones). Instead, Lynn will take a rest and rehab approach to his recovery.

11:02 AM: The Cardinals have formally selected Michael McGreevy’s contract from Triple-A Memphis, the team announced. To make room on the 40-man roster, Jacob Bosiokovic has been designated for assignment. Bosiokovic, 30, had his contract selected at the end of June, but while he spent four days with the big league club, he did not get into a game to make his MLB debut. In 33 appearances this year for Memphis, he has a 3.95 ERA and a 29.4% strikeout rate, though his 14.1% walk rate is a cause for concern. He will now have a week to pass through waivers. If he clears waivers, the Cardinals will have the option to send him outright back to Triple-A.

In additional Cardinals news, the team placed Lance Lynn on the 15-day injured list with right knee inflammation. Lynn pitched well against the Rangers last night, limiting Texas to one run on three hits over five innings. However, he told reporters after the game (including Woo) that he was nursing pain in his knee. Woo noted that he was walking with “a pretty noticeable limp.” John Denton of MLB.com suggests that Lynn’s injury is “pretty serious,” and that the veteran fears his right knee could be “severely damaged.” However, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reported last night that Lynn and the Cardinals will “monitor” the injury and “see how he recovers.” While Lynn is out, St. Louis could choose to give McGreevy a couple of extra turns in the rotation. Alternatively, they could push back Andre Pallante’s move to the bullpen.

By placing Lynn on the IL, the Cardinals made room for McGreevy on the active roster. St. Louis also recalled right-handed reliever Ryan Loutos from Triple-A and optioned fellow righty reliever Chris Roycroft.

July 30: The Cardinals are planning to promote pitching prospect Michael McGreevy to start Wednesday’s game against the Rangers (per Katie Woo of The Athletic). It will be the right-hander’s MLB debut. St. Louis will need to make corresponding moves to make room for the rookie on the 26 and 40-man rosters.

McGreevy, who turned 24 earlier this month, was the Cardinals’ first-round pick in the 2021 draft. His prospect stock has fallen significantly since he was drafted 18th overall, but he remains a consensus top-30 prospect in the Cardinals’ system. Keith Law of The Athletic remained particularly high on McGreevy entering the 2024 season, ranking him at No. 8 in the organization. Law made note of his durability and suggested, “He would be an easy No. 4 starter if he could get left-handed batters out.” Unfortunately for McGreevy, he has continued to struggle against opposite-handed opponents during his second season at Triple-A. While he has held righties to a .628 OPS in 207 trips to the plate, lefty batters have torched him for an .839 OPS in 261 plate appearances. Thus, his overall numbers have been lackluster. In 20 starts, he has a 4.45 ERA and a 4.31 FIP, only a slight improvement upon his 4.49 ERA and 4.52 FIP in 24 starts at Triple-A last season. Nevertheless, the Cardinals have decided he’s ready to give it a go in the majors, at least temporarily.

McGreevy’s debut will likely just be a spot start. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat explains that the Cardinals are looking to get their starting five a little extra rest amid a stretch of 16 games in 16 days. Lance Lynn is starting for St. Louis tonight, and after McGreevy’s turn on Wednesday, the rotation will line up as follows: Sonny Gray, recent trade acquisition Erick Fedde, Kyle Gibson, and Miles Mikolas (per Jones). It is unclear how Andre Pallante, who has been in the Cardinals’ rotation since the end of May, fits into this equation. According to Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, manager Oli Marmol has “not sat down yet” with Pallante to discuss his role moving forward. However, Marmol did confirm that he plans to return to a five-man rotation after this week (per Worthy). Thus, Pallante will most likely head to the bullpen. While the right-hander will surely bolster the team’s relief corps, it is noteworthy that the Cardinals are presumably choosing to promote McGreevy for a spot start rather than giving Pallante one last look in the rotation.

MLBTR Podcast: Aaron Nola, Non-Tenders And The Pace Of The Offseason

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Why is the MLB offseason so slow to get going? The other leagues, most of your top free agents are off the board within a few days. It’s been three weeks since players filed for free agency and nothing. (19:55)
  • Do you think the Dodgers do something major this year or will it be another disappointing offseason for the fans? (23:30)
  • Do you think the Pirates sign Rhys Hoskins or settle for someone cheaper? (26:20)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Top Trade Candidates, Bryce Harper at First Base and the Braves’ Raising Payroll – listen here
  • Top 50 Free Agents Megapod (with Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco) – listen here
  • Juan Soto Speculation, Melvin and Zaidi in SF, and Boston Hires Breslow – listen here

Cardinals Sign Lance Lynn To One-Year Deal

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November 21: The Cards have now made it official, announced they signed Lynn to a one-year deal with a club option for 2025.

November 20: The Cardinals and right-hander Lance Lynn are in agreement on a one-year contract with a club option for the 2025 season, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Lynn, a client of Headline Sports Group, will earn around $10MM on the contract, which is still pending the completion of a physical. Jon Heyman of the New York Post puts the guarantee at $11MM, noting that there’s a $10MM salary in 2024 and a $1MM buyout on the 2025 option. The deal also contains $3MM in potential performance incentives. The option is valued at $10MM, per the Associated Press. That value would escalate by $1MM apiece if Lynn tallies 170 and 190 innings next season.

It’s a homecoming for the 36-year-old Lynn, whom the Cardinals selected with the No. 39 overall pick in the 2008 draft. The 6’5″ righty spent the first six seasons of his career in St. Louis, solidifying himself as a quality big leaguer by throwing 977 2/3 innings of 3.38 ERA ball. Lynn reached free agency on the heels of that strong run but did so fresh off the shakiest strikeout, walk and home run rates of his career in 2016. He rejected a qualifying offer from the Cards that offseason and found a tepid market, ultimately landing with the Twins on a one-year deal that was agreed upon after spring training had commenced.

Things in Minnesota didn’t go that well, but Lynn rebounded to an extent following a trade to the Yankees and reinvigorated his career in a subsequent four-year stint between the Rangers and White Sox. From 2019-22, Lynn was one of the American League’s most durable and best starters. He pitched 571 innings of 3.42 ERA ball in that time, whiffing 26.8% of his opponents against a 6.2% walk rate. That success came under a three-year, $30MM deal originally agreed to with Texas and a two-year, $38MM extension signed with Chicago following a trade to the ChiSox.

The second season of that extension, this most recent year, marked the worst season of Lynn’s lengthy career. Lynn was baseball’s most homer-prone pitcher in 2023, surrendering an average of 2.16 long balls per nine frames (yielding 44 overall). He remained healthy and ate up plenty of innings, totaling 183 2/3 frames between the Sox and the Dodgers, but his 5.73 earned run average on the year was the second-highest of any qualified starter, leading only Kansas City’s Jordan Lyles.

Despite that career-worst showing, Lynn will still secure an eight-figure guarantee. The Cardinals, in need of at least three starting pitchers this winter, surely value Lynn’s durability and the bulk innings he can bring to the table. They’re also likely heartened by the fact that even through all of his home run woes, Lynn still posted an above-average 23.8% strikeout rate and a solid 8.3% walk rate. The veteran righty’s 12.9% swinging-strike rate remained well above the league average for a starting pitcher as well, and he also induced chases on pitches off the plate at a slightly above-average 32.4% rate. Lynn still has good spin on his four-seamer and cutter as well.

While there are plenty of positive indicators, there’s no sugarcoating the bottom-line results in 2023. It was a poor season from Lynn through and through, and he’ll need to rebound in a substantial way in order to have a meaningful impact on the Cardinals’ rotation. Given the Cardinals’ dire need for help on the starting staff, St. Louis fans were understandably hoping for a clearer upgrade with their first addition.

That said, the Cards still have at least two holes to fill on the staff. If Lynn ends up being the “third” of the three additions to the rotation this offseason, the overall outlook will be much improved. Adding a durable innings eater who can still miss bats and limit walks to round out the fourth or fifth spot in the rotation is perfectly sensible, particularly on a one-year contract with a club option. If the team’s forthcoming additions are more in this same vein, however, it’ll be fair to question the overall direction of the offseason. As with all early-offseason transactions, it’s impossible to glean full context; the overarching picture will be much clearer come spring training.

Lynn’s return to the Cardinals pushes their projected 2024 payroll to a bit more than $159MM, per Roster Resource. The Cards closed out the 2023 season with a payroll in the $178MM range, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has indicated that he does not expect payroll to rise substantially. That, however, is not an indication that the Cardinals only have about $20MM of flexibility with which to work. The Cards tendered contracts to both Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill — both of whom stand as obvious trade candidates.

O’Neill is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $5.5MM in 2024, while Carlson is projected to earn $1.8MM. Further, the Cardinals shed several meaningful salaries at the 2023 trade deadline but had been budgeting for a larger payroll prior to their summer sale. In all likelihood, there’s somewhere closer to $40MM with which to work — even after agreeing to terms with Lynn — and that number could further change a bit pending the outcome of various trade scenarios.

The Opener: Lynn, Yamamoto, MLBTR Chat

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As the offseason continues, here are three things for MLBTR readers to watch for today:

1. Lance Lynn to finalize deal with Cardinals:

Veteran starter Lance Lynn will take his physical today (per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), and barring any setbacks, he will officially rejoin the Cardinals, the team that selected him in the first round of the 2008 draft. Following the least productive season of his 12-year major league tenure, it’s no surprise that Lynn wanted to return to the homer-suppressing ballpark where he saw so much success in the early days of his career. The Cardinals, meanwhile, desperately needed to bolster their starting rotation, and signing Lynn is the first step in that direction. Other names the team has been linked to include Sonny Gray,  Jordan Montgomery (another former Cardinal), and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

2. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has officially been posted:

As of 7:00 am CT this morning, MLB clubs can begin negotiations with Yamamoto, who was posted by the Orix Buffaloes on Monday. The posting window will last 45 days, which means it will expire at 4:00 pm CT on January 4. Now that teams can begin discussions with the NPB superstar, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com suggests that the other top arms remaining on the market, namely Montgomery, Gray, and Blake Snell, could wait until Yamamoto signs before agreeing to deals of their own. Yamamoto is expected to sign for more guaranteed money than any other pitcher (aside from Shohei Ohtani) this winter, so it stands to reason that Montgomery, Gray, and Snell would like to wait for him to set the market. The Phillies, Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Cardinals are just some of the many teams that have been linked to the star pitcher, who will not turn 26 until next August.

3. MLBTR Chat today

Two of MLBTR’s top 50 free agents have come off the board this week – Aaron Nola and Reynaldo López – and with Yamamoto officially on the market, it looks like the hot stove is finally starting to heat up. MLBTR’s Steve Adams will host a chat with readers today at 1:00 pm CT to take questions about free agent signings, potential trades, and more. You can click here to submit a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to participate live and read a transcript once the chat is complete.

Dodgers Decline Option On Lance Lynn

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The Dodgers have declined their club option on right-hander Lance Lynn, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. They will pay him a $1MM buyout and send him to free agency instead of retaining him with an $18MM salary for 2024.

The move doesn’t come as a surprise, as Lynn just wrapped up the worst season of his career. He made 32 starts in 2023 between the White Sox and the Dodgers, switching teams in a trade prior to the deadline. His 23.6% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate were both around league average, but he was victimized by the long ball. He allowed an incredible 44 fly balls to go over the fence this past season, the most of any pitcher in the league and easily the highest tally of his career. Despite those struggles, the Dodgers’ rotation had been decimated by injuries and they sent Lynn to the mound in the playoffs. He started Game 3 of the NLDS against the Diamondbacks with two scoreless innings but allowed four home runs in the third, getting pulled before finishing that inning.

The Dodgers need starting pitching next year but it’s understandable they didn’t want to commit $17MM to Lynn just as the offseason is kicking off. After his poor results this year, he will likely have to settle for a lower salary than that. He may be able to top that number in total guarantee if he can find a multi-year deal, as even back-end veteran types can often get to eight figures on an annual basis.

Though the 2023 season was obviously rough and he turns 37 in May, Lynn will still have appeal as a bounceback candidate. He has a career ERA of 3.74 in a career that dates back to 2011. In each of the four seasons prior to 2023, he kept his ERA under 4.00. In that 2019 to 2022 stretch, he made 95 starts with a 3.42 ERA, 26.8% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate.

Veteran starters can often find decent contracts for themselves, even when the expectations of their production have waned. Zack Greinke got $13MM from the Royals going into 2022 and another $8.5MM going into 2023, his age-38 and age-39 seasons. Corey Kluber got $10MM from the Red Sox prior to 2023, even with questions around his health and effectiveness. 43-year-old Rich Hill got $8MM from the Pirates for 2023. Perhaps some club thinks they can get Lynn back on track or merely have him serve as an innings-eater, but he should be able to find a decent contract regardless.

As for the Dodgers, they go into the winter with plenty of question marks in their rotation. Lynn is now heading into free agency, joining Julio Urías and Clayton Kershaw. The latter has re-signed with the Dodgers many times but is slated for an uncertain road back from shoulder surgery. That leaves Walker Buehler, who missed all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery, as well as a batch of guys with limited experience like Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan, Ryan Pepiot, Gavin Stone and Michael Grove. There’s also Ryan Yarbrough in the mix but he’s a non-tender candidate.

The club has plenty of payroll space to work with and will likely be very active in free agency. They are expected to pursue two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, though he won’t be pitching in 2024. The other top names on the pitching market will be Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola and Jordan Montgomery, with many others also available.

Keynan Middleton Criticizes White Sox’s Clubhouse Culture

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The White Sox have been among the most disappointing teams in MLB this season. While Chicago entered the year with a top-heavy roster, they expected to compete with Minnesota and Cleveland in a lackluster AL Central. The division has been as bad as expected, but Chicago started slowly and never looked like a viable playoff team.

As a result, the Sox moved a number of veterans before last week’s deadline. One of the players shipped off — middle reliever Keynan Middleton — criticized Chicago’s clubhouse culture after being traded. The now-Yankees righty told Jesse Rogers of ESPN last night that players “came in with no rules.”

“I don’t know how you police the culture if there are no rules or guidelines to follow because everyone is doing their own thing. Like, how do you say anything about it because there are no rules,” Middleton continued. “You have rookies sleeping in the bullpen during the game. You have guys missing meetings. You have guys missing (pitcher fielding practices), and there are no consequences for any of this stuff.”

Middleton first joined the organization on a minor league deal in January. He’d bounced between the Angels, Mariners and Diamondbacks over parts of six MLB seasons before signing with Chicago. While Middleton participated in big league Spring Training, he wasn’t on the MLB roster until the Sox selected his contract in mid-April.

From a performance perspective, the 29-year-old had one of the better stretches of his career in Chicago. He worked to a 3.96 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate over 36 1/3 frames, allowing the Sox to flip him to New York for minor league righty Juan Carela even though he’s an impending free agent. However, Middleton was clearly displeased with the culture, which he said predated his arrival.

“When I got to spring training, I heard a lot of the same stuff was happening last year,” Middleton told Rogers. “It’s happening again this year, so not sure how I could change it. They don’t tell you not to miss PFPs. They don’t tell you not to miss meetings, and if it happens, it’s just, ’OK.”

He directed his criticism primarily at the team’s position players, saying that while the pitching staff “went about our work the right way … the rest of the team struggled to do the right thing.” Of course, the mention of skipped pitcher-fielding practices would only be a problem for the pitching staff.

One of Middleton’s former teammates backed up his assertions. Veteran starter Lance Lynn — who spent two and a half seasons with the Sox before being traded to the Dodgers last month — briefly addressed Middleton’s comments this afternoon (relayed by Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). “I was (with the White Sox) a lot longer than Key was. He’s not wrong,” Lynn stated.

Chicago has a first-year manager in Pedro Grifol. Hired last offseason after Tony La Russa resigned because of health concerns, Grifol had no previous MLB managerial experience. Middleton’s and Lynn’s comments imply that what they perceived to be a lack of accountability began during the La Russa era and has continued under Grifol’s leadership.

General manager Rick Hahn defended Grifol this afternoon. “It does take a manager a certain amount of time to implement the culture that they want,” Hahn said (link via Bruce Levine of 670 The Score). “I know early on Pedro wanted to observe and follow what the culture was in the clubhouse before he started putting thumbprints all over it.”

However, Hahn pushed back at the extent of Middleton’s criticism, taking a swipe at the reliever in the process. “Quite frankly, it’s a little bit ironic that Keynan’s the one saying this because my last conversation with him face to face was a week ago in this clubhouse where he sought me out to apologize for his unprofessional behavior – unprofessional behavior that Pedro had called him out on and had an individual meeting with him about, and Keenan wanted to apologize for,” Hahn said (link from Tori Rubinstein of NBC Sports Chicago). “I told him at the time I figured that was a one off and not something that anyone need to get into greater detail of. And he shared that he understood there was a trade deadline coming up and that if we moved him, he would be very interested in returning to us as a free agent.”

Hahn conceded the club has unspecified “cultural issues” and admitted “we need to improve the leadership in that room.” However, he denied the assertion that any player fell asleep in the bullpen mid-game or that players were free to skip meetings. “One thing we’re not going to do is stand idly by while false reports are put out there about the character of the men that remain in that room,” Hahn said.

The White Sox host Middleton’s new club for a three-game set this week. They entered tonight’s game with a 45-68 record, the third-worst mark in the American League.

Marlins Had Interest In Turner, Lynn, Cron Prior To Trade Deadline

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The Marlins were one of the league’s busier teams in advance of the trade deadline, as Miami made several moves to bolster its lineup and bullpen for the wild card race.  Such names as Josh Bell, David Robertson, Jake Burger, Jorge Lopez, and Ryan Weathers joined the organization, but there were plenty of interesting players on Miami’s radar, including a few who weren’t previously mentioned in pre-deadline buzz.  The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Levi Weaver report that the Marlins had “extensive discussions” with the Red Sox about Justin Turner, while Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald report that the Marlins were also interested in Lance Lynn and C.J. Cron.

Reports surfaced on July 28 that the Sox weren’t moving Turner, which is probably when (as Rosenthal and Weaver write) the Marlins turned their attention to other position players.  Miami’s talks with the White Sox about Lynn also developed into the eventual Burger trade, as the Fish landed Burger for left-hander Jake Eder in a one-for-one swap.  Burger was also something of a fallback once the Marlins balked at the Nationals’ asking price for Jeimer Candelario, and Miami was more comfortable trading a controllable pitcher like Eder for another younger player with multiple years of control, whereas Candelario is a free agent after the season.

Lynn and Cron were seen as likely trade candidates since the White Sox and Rockies are both out of contention, and indeed both players were moved in pre-deadline deals.  (Chicago sent Lynn and Joe Kelly to the Dodgers as part of a five-player trade, while the Rockies dealt Cron and Randal Grichuk to the Angels for two pitching prospects.)  There would certainly have been more eyebrows raised over a Turner deal given that the Red Sox are fighting for a wild card berth in the American League, yet even such a trade wouldn’t have been a total shock considering how Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom both moved and acquired veterans at the 2022 deadline when Boston was also on the periphery of the playoff chase.

This year’s deadline season was comparatively quieter at Fenway Park, as the Sox only acquired Luis Urias from the Brewers and sent Enrique Hernandez to the Dodgers.  The Red Sox were known to be looking for controllable pitching, and Rosenthal/Weaver theorize that the Marlins’ deep crop of arms might have gotten Bloom to at least consider the idea of moving Turner.

Speculatively, it is also worth wondering if Edward Cabrera might have been part of the Marlins/Red Sox talks.  Jackson and Mish write that several teams called about Cabrera, to the point that the Marlins had Devin Smeltzer on hand in case Cabrera was moved prior to his scheduled start on Monday.  Cabrera only lasted three innings in that start, and he was optioned to Triple-A on Wednesday and Smeltzer’s contract was officially selected from Triple-A a day later.

As much as the Red Sox needed pitching, it is safe to guess that trading Turner for almost anyone wouldn’t have gone over well with Boston fans, or even within the clubhouse.  Turner has hit .286/.356/.481 with 17 homers over 441 plate appearances, with his offense steadily increasing over the course of the season.  Though Turner will be 39 in November, he is still playing well enough that it’s possible he could opt out of the final season of his two-year contract with the Sox and again enter free agency this winter, looking to land a more lucrative multi-year commitment.  If that scenario occurs, one would imagine the Marlins would come calling, considering their interest in Turner dates back at last winter.

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