By: Stephen Hawkins
The Chicago White Sox are set to acquire a big workhorse for their starting rotation.
Lance Lynn is being traded from the Texas Rangers to the White Sox, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press late Monday night, at the end of the first day of Major League Baseball’s virtual winter meeting, because there was no announcement from either team.
Lynn would be reunited in Chicago with new manager Tony La Russa. Lynn was a rookie pitcher for the 2011 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, who beat the Rangers in seven games in the last season La Russa managed in the big leagues before returning to the White Sox this offseason.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Lynn was 22-14 in 46 starts the past two seasons for the Rangers, with 335 strikeouts over 292 1/3 innings. The right-hander has an $8 million salary in 2021, the final season of a $30 million, three-year contract he signed with Texas two winters ago.
The on-the-rise White Sox are coming off their first playoff appearance since 2008, going 35-25 and finishing tied for second in the AL Central before losing to Oakland in their wild-card series. Lynn would be in the top three of a rotation that features right-hander Lucas Giolito and lefty Dallas Keuchel.
In nine big league seasons with the Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees and Rangers, the 33-year-old Lynn is 104-71 with a 3.57 ERA in 260 games (236 starts).
Texas was an AL-worst 22-38 in the pandemic-shortened season and had three 22-year-old rookies in its starting lineup on the last day of the season.
Managing partner Ray Davis said the Rangers were still in a rebuilding mode earlier Monday during the formal introduction of new general manager Chris Young. Texas named Young last week to that role after Jon Daniels had served as both president of baseball operations and GM since 2013. Daniels, who had been GM since 2005, is still president of baseball operations.
While the Rangers didn’t move Lynn at the Aug. 31 trade deadline, they did send All-Star lefty Mike Minor to Oakland. After the season, they declined an $18 million option on right-hander Corey Kluber, the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner they acquired last winter who pitched just one inning before a shoulder injury ended his season.
*Courtesy Associated Press
