Minnesota Twins: 5 Free Agent Pitchers Part 2
By Nate Palmer
Lance Lynn
Lance Lynn has been a constant in the St. Louis for several seasons. He joins fellow free agent starter Alex Cobb as pitchers who are only a few years removed from Tommy John surgery. Lynn had the surgery following the 2015 season and missed all of 2016.
In Lynn’s 2017 return, he made 33 starts for 186.1 innings. In those starts, he went 11-8, had a 3.43 ERA, and 153 strikeouts. As can be expected, Lynn’s strikeout per nine rate took a bit of hit in his return to the mound. Going from 8.6 in 2015 down to 7.4 in 2017.
Lynn has reportedly been asking for a contract in the range of a $100 million, but MLB Trade Rumors doubts he will see that kind of money. MLB Trade Rumors has projected Lynn to get a contract in the range of 4 years and 56 million. On top of that price tag, the Cardinals extended Lynn a qualifying offer, requiring any team that does sign him to surrender a draft pick in addition to the money paid in the contract. For the Twins, they would have to give up their 3rd pick in the 2018 draft to sign Lynn.
A concern when looking at Lynn as a potential signing comes out when looking at his stats. Lynn held a very solid 3.43 ERA in 2017 but it does look like that ERA could easily sore something north of 4 very quickly. That is reflected in a 4.82 FIP and 4.75 xFIP. Those type of numbers might be enough to keep teams second guessing on whether or not to give him the big contract.