So Long, Fastball Master: Enjoy retirement, Lance Lynn
The former Cardinals right-hander is finished throwing heaters.
Thousands of pitchers roll through the minor league system with the singular goal of making it to the Majors to make some money, leave a dent in the minds of fans, and do something memorable. Lance Lynn did a lot of memorable things in his 13-year Major League Baseball career, including coming into a World Series game when Tony La Russa intended for a different pitcher to pitch that inning. That infamous and humorous highlight pales in comparison to the career built on a large pile of fastballs.
Against all odds, and frequent media inquiries, that’s what Lynn dished out to hitters over his career spent in multiple cities and leagues. The greater portion of his career (seven seasons) were spent in St. Louis, where Lynn made a home with his wife and kids. It was on his wife’s podcast, Dymin in the Rough, that Lynn announced Tuesday morning that he was retiring from baseball. At the tip-off of the pod, she passed it to her husband, who said he was sitting on the couch… for good.
Good for Lynn. 2024 was a solid finale for the cheddar-dealing righty, but it also had an effect on his knees. When you’re pushing past 37 years of age towards 38 and teams aren’t exactly ringing your phone off the hook, the time to exit stage left is a wise one. Lynn probably had offers, but none of them were sweet enough to go through the endurance of a six month season with weeks of prep sandwiched around tons of fastballs and knee torque that could lead to more surgery.
If you’re human, surgery always sucks and doesn’t get any better when you’re older. Lynn left it all on the field, shutting lineups down with multiple forms of a single pitch. He mixed four-seam and two-seam fastballs with the occasional breaking pitch, but didn’t get fancy out there. If you had to compare his output to a drinker, he’s the guy who sits at the bar and asks for a cold bottle of beer instead of a spiffy IPA. What you see is what you got with Lynn, and that’s what made him one of my favorite pitchers.
He’s the guy who rose up from a bullpen arm to an underrated starter, as evidenced by his career 3.74 ERA. After leaving St. Louis and running into mediocre and troublesome waters in Minnesota and New York, he reloaded his repertoire with the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox to become an even better pitcher than he was with the Cardinals, finishing in the top six spots in Cy Young voting from 2019-2022.
It was with St. Louis where the cheddar train ran the smoothest, though. In 340 career starts, Lynn compiled a slick 3.43 ERA/3.71 FIP that elicited a nice finish in 2024. In 23 starts last year on a one-year contract, he fulfilled the promise that John Mozeliak wanted in that transaction.
Cut from the old school, no frills cloth that you don’t see much these days, I’ll miss watching him pitch. From the colorful passion on the mound to the dry humor shown in postgame interviews, Lynn was blunt and unique. A lot of pitchers have survived on a single pitch. Mariano Rivera’s cut fastball was a shutdown pitch, but he only needed it for an inning. Adam Wainwright had the curve and the late Tim Wakefield had the knuckleball. Lynn had the heater.
Lou Brown would have loved him. Cardinals’ fans may finally get a chance to appreciate what he did over 13 years. So long, Lance. Enjoy retirement. As Shoeless Joe Jackson told Archie Graham, “you were good.”