9 Cardinals who have been on fire the first month of the 2024 season, 9 who are cold

On fire: Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson

Before the season, many readers laughed at me for believing in the Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson experiment. Was that the way I would have built the Cardinals rotation? No, it was not. But the job they've done so far in St. Louis has been exactly what the Cardinals have needed from them and more.

Starting with Lance Lynn, the Cardinals were hoping for a rebound season from him in his return back to St. Louis, but he's been more than just a bounce-back veteran so far, he's pitched like the number two starter the Cardinals are sorely lacking.

Notice, I said he's pitched like, not that he is that starter. Regardless, his performance in April is worthy of an A+, and the Cardinals are hoping that the magic continues for the remainder of the season. In his six starts thus far, Lynn has a 2.64 ERA in 30.2 innings of work and probably covers a few more innings if it were not for him having to pitch in some rainy starts early in the year.

Lynn has risen to the challenge almost every time he's stepped on the mound, and right now, I trust him to go toe to toe with about anyone in baseball. Even if he doesn't maintain a 2.64 ERA this season, it's becoming more and more believable that Lynn may be able to post an ERA closer to 3.50 than the 5.00 ERA many fans believed they'd get from Lynn this year. That is a huge development.

Gibson just went 7 innings strong against the Detroit Tigers while allowing just one run, and now has brought his season ERA down to 3.79. Outside of a blowup start against the Miami Marlins where he gave up six runs in the first inning, Gibson has been awesome thus far and has even managed to give the Cardinals at least six innings of work in all six of his starts this year.

Gibson has done exactly what the Cardinals paid him to do so far, eat innings and give the Cardinals a chance to win. In give of his six outings, he did both of those things, and even in the game he blew up, he managed to finish six innings to help save an overworked Cardinal bullpen.

Lynn and Gibson were brought in to provide stability to the back end of the Cardinals' rotation, and they've more than done that job thus far.