Lance Lynn retires

[82birds]

Lance Lynn To Retire
By Leo Morgenstern | April 1, 2025 at 10:30am CDT

Veteran starting pitcher Lance Lynn announced his retirement today on his and his wife’s podcast, Dymin in the Rough. In his own words, “I am officially retiring from baseball right here, right now… from Major League Baseball, I am done pitching.”

Lynn spent his final season with the Cardinals, pitching to a 3.84 ERA and 4.40 SIERA over 117 1/3 innings. The team went 15-8 in his starts. It was a fitting way to go out, pitching for the same team with whom he spent the first decade of his professional career. The Cardinals selected Lynn in the first round of the 2008 draft, and he made his big league debut just under three years later. He would quickly become a key contributor in the Cardinals’ bullpen, helping the team to a World Series championship in the fall.

[rockondlouie]

I was always a fan of Lance, nice career and $110,440,917 career earnings means no Lynn offspring will have to work for many decades.

[nighthawk]

He ranks sixth all time in strikeouts for the franchise. He's ranks third all time in strikeouts per nine innings for the Cards, among qualifiers. But on this forum he was despised for having a 79-51 record and 3.43 ERA. Something about him be "gutless" in big games or something like that.

[KeeptheRamsinSTL]

Does he get a red jacket?

[RunSup]

Not a great April Fools prank if he's pulling one.

Good careers. Good Cardinal. Godspeed on whatever is next, Lance

[Strummer Jones]

Does he get a red jacket?

I wouldn't be opposed. Won 79 games here, ERA well under 4. Just over 1000 K's. World series winner, two pennants, an all-star. According to baseballreference.com, he rates similarly to Chris Carpenter. I think I'd take Carpenter over Lance, but I don't think it's an absurd conversation to have. Lance probably had a consistently better career (we forget that Carpenter was pretty mediocre in Toronto for a while) and was healthier, but Carpenter had a higher and more dominant peak.

So...yeah. I think Lynn should get a red jacket.

[rockondlouie]

Does he get a red jacket?

7 yrs a Redbird
79-51
3.43 ERA
3.71 FiP
114 ERA+

Solid Cardinals career, no Red Jacket though

[82birds]

Does he get a red jacket?

I wouldn't be opposed. Won 79 games here, ERA well under 4. Just over 1000 K's. World series winner, two pennants, an all-star. According to baseballreference.com, he rates similarly to Chris Carpenter. I think I'd take Carpenter over Lance, but I don't think it's an absurd conversation to have. Lance probably had a consistently better career (we forget that Carpenter was pretty mediocre in Toronto for a while) and was healthier, but Carpenter had a higher and more dominant peak.

So...yeah. I think Lynn should get a red jacket.

I'm sure Lynn would be quite happy with that comparison.

[Strummer Jones]

Does he get a red jacket?

7 yrs a Redbird
79-51
3.43 ERA
3.71 FiP
114 ERA+

Solid Cardinals career, no Red Jacket though

Morris had more wins, but otherwise pretty similar numbers. ERA+ is VERY slightly favored to Morris. He had a 117. Morris had a worse ERA by a hair (3.61)--similar FiP (Morris was 3.77)

Lynn also lines up favorably to a lot of the more ratio stats of Bob Forsch well, too.

[rockondlouie]

Does he get a red jacket?

7 yrs a Redbird
79-51
3.43 ERA
3.71 FiP
114 ERA+

Solid Cardinals career, no Red Jacket though

Morris had more wins, but otherwise pretty similar numbers. ERA+ is VERY slightly favored to Morris. He had a 117. Morris had a worse ERA by a hair (3.61)--similar FiP (Morris was 3.77)

Lynn also lines up favorably to a lot of the more ratio stats of Bob Forsch well, too.

I was always a big fan, liked his bad a z z demeanor on the bump.

But B. Forsch is well ahead of Lynn in Cardinals history, a 15 year Cardinal w/163 wins and a pair of no-no's.

Good comp though w/Matty Mo and I looked at that too.

But Morris and Forsch, in their Cardinals days, were looked upon as staff leaders and #1's (not ACES but the Cardinals #1) while Lance wasn't.

Forsch was a slam dunk Red Jacket, but honestly strummer I didn't think Morris deserved a Red Jacket either.

JMO

[Strummer Jones]

Does he get a red jacket?

7 yrs a Redbird
79-51
3.43 ERA
3.71 FiP
114 ERA+

Solid Cardinals career, no Red Jacket though

Morris had more wins, but otherwise pretty similar numbers. ERA+ is VERY slightly favored to Morris. He had a 117. Morris had a worse ERA by a hair (3.61)--similar FiP (Morris was 3.77)

Lynn also lines up favorably to a lot of the more ratio stats of Bob Forsch well, too.

I was always a big fan, liked his bad a z z demeanor on the bump.

But B. Forsch is well ahead of Lynn in Cardinals history, a 15 year Cardinal w/163 wins and a pair of no-no's.

Good comp though w/Matty Mo and I looked at that too.

But Morris and Forsch, in their Cardinals days, were looked upon as staff leaders and #1's (not ACES but the Cardinals #1) while Lance wasn't.

Forsch was a slam dunk Red Jacket, but honestly strummer I didn't think Morris deserved a Red Jacket either.

JMO

Here's my counter argument, though. Lynn wasn't the staff ace in St. Louis, but I don't think that's any fault of his own. His rookie year he pitched mostly out of the bullpen and had Carpenter. After that, he was probably second fiddle to Wainwright and those few seasons that Martinez was pitching as good as he was capable of.

Not to take from Forschie, but he was always probably the best pitcher on some ho-hum staffs. Forsch was also never an all-star. By measure of ERA+ he was pretty much a league average pitcher. He had some excellent seasons, no doubt. But Lynn was consistently a well above average starter in his time in STL. He averaged an ERA+ of 116. Forsch averaged a 101.

I'm also not a fan of bringing in no-hitters into the conversation either. Again, not to take away from Bob...but Jose Jiménez also had more no-no's than Lance. Bud Smith, too.

[Pink Freud]

Not a great April Fools prank if he's pulling one.

Good call. It was on April Fools Day in 1987 that the Cardinals announced they had traded Andy Van Slyke to Pittsburgh and were giving Jim Lindeman his RF job. Nobody would fall for that, would they?

[Pink Freud]

I'm also not a fan of bringing in no-hitters into the conversation either. Again, not to take away from Bob...but Jose Jiménez also had more no-no's than Lance. Bud Smith, too.

And whose MLB career would you rather have had? Lance Lynn's, or (My name) Jose Jimenez's***/Bud Smith's?


*** Ask your grandparents

[Strummer Jones]

I'm also not a fan of bringing in no-hitters into the conversation either. Again, not to take away from Bob...but Jose Jiménez also had more no-no's than Lance. Bud Smith, too.

And whose MLB career would you rather have had? Lance Lynn's, or (My name) Jose Jimenez's***/Bud Smith's?


*** Ask your grandparents

My point exactly. I'm not calling Forsch a hack, you've gotta be good to last as long as he did in the majors, but plenty of ho-hum pitchers caught God in a bottle for one start. And plenty of amazing starting pitchers never got one.

[Wattage]

Does he get a red jacket?

I wouldn't be opposed. Won 79 games here, ERA well under 4. Just over 1000 K's. World series winner, two pennants, an all-star. According to baseballreference.com, he rates similarly to Chris Carpenter. I think I'd take Carpenter over Lance, but I don't think it's an absurd conversation to have. Lance probably had a consistently better career (we forget that Carpenter was pretty mediocre in Toronto for a while) and was healthier, but Carpenter had a higher and more dominant peak.

So...yeah. I think Lynn should get a red jacket.

Of course carp was better and itd be absurd to take lance. Itndoesnt surprise me that the career numbers are similar. But carp had an absolutely better peak and better for cardinals. He just was a mediocre putcher for toronto for yeats til he had his surgery and putched for us but for us he was a cy young level pitcher for a few years.

Lynn was consistently a 2 to low end #1 pitcher for his career but never in cy young talk, but other tham his last 2023 and 1 other year, didnt have half a career dragging down his nu.bers like carp and remained solid for a long time.

Carp with cards was absolutely better though

[rockondlouie]

Does he get a red jacket?

7 yrs a Redbird
79-51
3.43 ERA
3.71 FiP
114 ERA+

Solid Cardinals career, no Red Jacket though

Morris had more wins, but otherwise pretty similar numbers. ERA+ is VERY slightly favored to Morris. He had a 117. Morris had a worse ERA by a hair (3.61)--similar FiP (Morris was 3.77)

Lynn also lines up favorably to a lot of the more ratio stats of Bob Forsch well, too.

I was always a big fan, liked his bad a z z demeanor on the bump.

But B. Forsch is well ahead of Lynn in Cardinals history, a 15 year Cardinal w/163 wins and a pair of no-no's.

Good comp though w/Matty Mo and I looked at that too.

But Morris and Forsch, in their Cardinals days, were looked upon as staff leaders and #1's (not ACES but the Cardinals #1) while Lance wasn't.

Forsch was a slam dunk Red Jacket, but honestly strummer I didn't think Morris deserved a Red Jacket either.

JMO

Here's my counter argument, though. Lynn wasn't the staff ace in St. Louis, but I don't think that's any fault of his own. His rookie year he pitched mostly out of the bullpen and had Carpenter. After that, he was probably second fiddle to Wainwright and those few seasons that Martinez was pitching as good as he was capable of.

Not to take from Forschie, but he was always probably the best pitcher on some ho-hum staffs. Forsch was also never an all-star. By measure of ERA+ he was pretty much a league average pitcher. He had some excellent seasons, no doubt. But Lynn was consistently a well above average starter in his time in STL. He averaged an ERA+ of 116. Forsch averaged a 101.

I'm also not a fan of bringing in no-hitters into the conversation either. Again, not to take away from Bob...but Jose Jiménez also had more no-no's than Lance. Bud Smith, too.

Fair enough

But Forsch's body of Cardinals work is what makes him a slam dunk Red Jacket member.

I saw both their careers, was a fan of both.

You mentioned Carlos Martinez, does he also get a Red Jacket if Lynn get's one?

CMart as a Cardinal:
9 yrs (7 yrs Lynn)
139 GS (184 GS Lynn)
62 Wins (79 Wins Lynn)
31 Saves (1 save Lynn)
3.66 FiP (3.82 FiP)
1.30 WHiP (1.29 WHiP)
107 ERA+ (114 ERA+ Lynn)
2 Time All Star (1 time All Star)

I'd say no

And I still don't think Lynn gets a Red Jacket either.