Morning Rundown: Starting pitching market continues to form
The St. Louis Cardinals jump in and grab two available free agent starting pitchers
After finishing last in the NL Central, the St. Louis Cardinals are working on not making it a second straight year in the basement.
They have now signed a pair of starting pitchers - Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson - to one-year contracts for the 2024 season.
Lynn, who began his major league career with the Cardinals, went 13-11 last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, posting a 5.73 ERA (4.50 xFIP) in 183.2 innings pitched. Baseball Savant credited him with throwing seven different pitches during the 2023 season, none of which had a positive Run-Value.
The Pirates pursued Gibson last year, but he eventually landed with the Baltimore Orioles, where he won 15 games for them. He posted a 4.73 ERA (4.13 xFIP) in 192 innings pitches while putting up a 2.6 WAR.
His sweeper was among the best in the majors, and he got a 46.7% whiff rate.
Both aren’t going to light up any pitch models, with the Cardinals buying the innings pitched from the previous year, something the Pirates can attest to the importance of after how things went for them.
It’s only been a couple of days since Aaron Nolas signed his massive contract to remain with the Philadelphia Phillies, and since then, you have seen the free agent wheel starting to turn when it comes to starting pitchers.
Pitching never comes cheap; this is another example of that, with both combining to sign for $23 million.
For the Pirates, it’s a reminder that if they make a splash in anything other than the ‘reclamation’ project bin, it will come at the price of likely overpaying for whatever free agent they bring in.
They can go for a starting pitcher via trade, but that won’t come cheap.
With the uncertainty now surrounding Johan Oviedo, the pressure to add pitchers that could cover a season’s worth of innings will be much more crucial, never mind that they could be looking to contend this year.
Every Monday during the offseason, we will be doing a mailbag article. You can send your questions to bucsondeckqa@gmail.com or leave a comment with ‘mailbag’ written in it. The email would be easier to track, but you can comment, and I will add it to the list.
There will be no afternoon feature on Thursday for Thanksgiving, but I will have something up in the morning. We will continue our usual schedule on Friday.
With the Cardinals signing Lynn and Gibson, I figured it’s a good time to reshare Nola’s article from last week, looking at different free-agent starting pitcher options.
He doesn’t mention either player signed by the Cardinals, but some other options that are still available.
Going to throw out a completely unrealistic idea, try for Yamamoto.
3 year $100 million
Year 1 $40 million
Year 2 $35 million
Year 3 $25 million
Then pray he's healthy!
It would be a huge change to the culture and be totally off the radar of the rest of the league.
It would allow Yoshi to hit free agency again under his age 30 season, with a ton already banked.
We should target mason miller and bring him to the burgh to pair with bednar as a all-yinzer back of the pen