In my eyes, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson are panic picks by the St. Louis Cardinals.
All baseball fans know that the pressure is very strong at the moment on the shoulders of Mike Girsch and John Mozeliak, because it is unacceptable for a team of this quality to have finished the last campaign in last place in the Central division in the National.
The general manager and the president of baseball operations must do much better than these two signings to hope for better results than those of last season.
Mozeliak, the first, is responsible for providing manager Oliver Marmol with the ingredients to compete again in a division that saw the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs regain strength in 2023.
The Cards big man is aware that an obvious weakness remains on the mound despite the signing of the two veterans. Lynn and Gibson are both 36 years old and signed one-year deals with an option year for 2025.
In my humble opinion, these additions to the Cardinals pitching staff represent a diachylon solution and do nothing to resolve the situation in the medium and long term.
Yes, the two veterans will be able to offer innings to their manager in 2024, but it would be surprising if Gibson shows the same statistics as last year in Baltimore. In 2023, the right-hander worked 192 innings while allowing a strong total of 198 hits to opposing batters, a record in the American. Despite this high number of hits allowed, he still won 15 games and he can thank the Orioles offense for supporting him considering that his earned run average was at 4.73 at the end of the regular season.
The previous two years, Gibson posted earned run averages above five in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform.
For his part, Lance Lynn returns to the fold of the Cardinals, he who began his career there in 2011 before leaving in 2018. Last year, he saw his season split between Chicago and Los Angeles. With the White Sox and Dodgers, he went 13-11 with an ERA of 5.73.
In St. Louis, the Indianapolis native had an 18-win season and two 15-win campaigns.
The addition of Lynn and Gibson fills two spots in the rotation, but does not offer a real option for the number one starter role at the start of next season. At the moment, neither Miles Mikolas (35 years old) nor Steven Matz can aspire to this title.
Let’s hope for Cardinals fans that the team’s winter shopping is not over. According to the team’s senior management, gunners such as Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Sonny Gray are still in their sights.
