St. Louis Cardinals: Lance Lynn’s Unexpected Return from Tommy John

Since Lance Lynn’s return from Tommy John this season, he is pitching better than he ever has with the St. Louis Cardinals. He ranks amongst some of the best pitchers in the National League in ERA this season.

When I say unexpected, I am not saying that we never expected him to return from Tommy John, but it was unexpected in how well he started the season with his unprecedented April. He has been fantastic this season, which was the theme of the St. Louis Cardinals thru April: great starting pitching. I must say, it is very nice to see Lance Lynn succeeding.

Lynn has always been a pitcher with a lot of wins and a solid ERA, as he has won sixty games in four full seasons in St. Louis. He made the National League All-Star team in 2012 at the age of 25, a season where he finished with eighteen wins and a 3.78 ERA.

Let’s not forget about his early in-game struggles in the past.

Before his injury and return, Lynn had a lot of losses with a certain theme: slow starts in games and not recovering from them. He has seemed to almost entirely fix that issue this season so far. The most runs he has given up in a game so far this season is four and that was his only loss and was against the best offense in baseball right now, the Washington Nationals.

He had a no decision against the Cubs as well, where he pitched very well, giving up just two runs and striking out four. Since then, he has won three in a row over the Pirates, Brewers, and Reds. In his three wins this year, he has gone a total of nineteen innings, giving up just two runs and striking out seventeen in those games. That is a tremendous sign for the St. Louis Cardinals.

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Back to his past, a lot of people complain and don’t like Lynn per se. But if you look at his career stats, he’s been one of the more consistent Cardinals in his career here, winning a total of sixty-four games and having an earned run average of 3.33 total as well. He is closing in on 800 strikeouts in his career, as he is at 791.

This is a contract year for Lynn, and if he wants to make the money he thinks he deserves, he needs to continue his roll here early on. You could say he hasn’t lived up to his first-round-pick potential, but many have been first-round busts, and he has done pretty well for himself.

If you look at his full career statistic table, he has basically improved in every season. And if you don’t say he hasn’t improved, then he is close to consistent improvement. That is what the St. Louis Cardinals organization looks for in a player, consistent improvement. That is why Lynn has been with the club as long as he has. Here’s a look at Lynn’s career stats:

He made strides in April to maybe even say that he is up for a large improvement this season, pitchers understand how tough it is return from a major surgery. And with how good he was in April, could show that he was never gone from his Tommy John in the first place. Lynn has been really fun to watch this year.

Next: Lyons back to DL

With Lynn and other St. Louis Cardinals starters in the fold, this team can win some games. As long as the defense can somewhat hold up this year, they will in fact win games. We hope to see Lynn keep this up and prove that pitchers can return at full form after a major arm surgery like Tommy John Surgery.