The Cardinals on Wednesday completed a surprise trade with the Mariners that, most notably, sends veteran right-hander Mike Leake to Seattle in year two of the five-year, $80 million contract he signed with St. Louis. While the Cardinals have on balance been a pretty middling team in 2017, they're still alive in the NL Central and in the race for one of the two NL wild card spots. As such, trading away a near-term asset like Leake probably isn't hugely popular with the veterans on the team.
One of those veterans is right-hander Lance Lynn. You can read all about his comments on the Leake trade in Rick Hummel's story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But wait: That's not all!
The Cardinals will save a good bit of cash in shipping off Leake (they're reportedly kicking in $17 million of the roughly $55 million that Leake is still owed), and that's led to some speculation regarding that newfound payroll flexibility ...
Certainly, this provides not only an opening, but frees money for #STLCards to bring back Lance Lynn
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 30, 2017
So what does Lynn think about all that? Again via Mr. Hummel, here are Lynn's pointed comments about a possible extension with the Cards ...
"You can't say that. There's been no talks. There's been zero communication, whatsoever.
"I'm sure whenever the time comes — when the World Series is over and five days after, I'm sure somebody will talk to me. I just don't know who it is. They've had a whole season. Five days isn't going to matter.
"But I just work here."
Make your own judgments, but that doesn't sound like a pending free agent who's inclined to stick around much longer. Speaking of which, Lynn in his walk year -- which is also his comeback campaign from Tommy John surgery -- has pitched to a 3.14 ERA/136 ERA+ and 2.16 K/BB ratio in an NL-leading 27 starts. For his career, the 30-year-old owns an ERA+ of 116 across parts of six big-league seasons. Given Lynn's track record, his strong 2017 numbers, and the heated market for starting pitching each winter, he may be headed for a nine-figure payday.
Hometown discount? I'm not sure this sounds like a player who's high on organizational loyalty, at least at the moment.
