Chicago White Sox Trade Lance Lynn to Los Angeles Dodgers: Impact and Analysis

2023-11-03 19:13:09

On July 28th, 2023, the Chicago White Sox traded Lance Lynn to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Jordan Leasure, Nick Nastrini, and Trayce Thompson. The White Sox also sent Joe Kelly to the Dodgers along with Lynn in the deal.

Leasure and Nastrini are both minor league prospects and Thompson is an MLB player. The White Sox are hoping that the two prospects can one day be a part of a winning MLB roster. That is always the hope when a losing team trades good MLB talent for unproven prospects.

The Dodgers were hoping for a decent version of Lance Lynn when they acquired him. They got that during the regular season. He proved to them that he was struggling with the White Sox because it was a very bad situation.

It isn’t like he was a Cy Young-caliber pitcher with them but he was good enough. With a team like the Dodgers who are so deep, you don’t need to be much better than that.

However, once the playoffs rolled around, Lynn was brutal. He was a big reason that they were eventually defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS. He couldn’t even make it out of the third inning before being pulled.

That definitely soured the Dodgers on him because it came out on Friday that they are not picking up his option for the 2024 season. Lynn will be given $1 million for being bought out. They would have been giving him $18 million to pitch for them if they did pick up the option.

Now, Lynn is a free agent coming into the 2024 season. It will be interesting to see what his future in the game is. He obviously needs to be a little bit better to be worth keeping on a roster but someone is going to take a chance on him.

It shouldn’t be ruled out that he signs with the Dodgers but it will be much cheaper than if they picked up the option. They definitely have different things on their mind though.

Lynn will almost certainly sign with a contender. There are plenty of them that need starting pitching so there is a market for Lynn on a good team. It is a shame that the White Sox weren’t able to win with Lynn but it is what it is. Hopefully, success finds him next year with whatever team.