Finally less then 20 days left until Opening Day and now more key free agents are finding a home to play in for 2018. In the past week we've seen Mike Moustakas, Jonathon Lucroy, Carlos Gonzalez all sign with a team. Now Lance Lynn's the next player off the market joining the Minnesota Twins for a 1 year deal worth $12 million. This is a win win situation for both Lynn and the Twins. The Twins just went from a wild card threat to now taking a run for Cleveland's money in the AL Central with bolstering there rotation. Lynn had a solid bounce back year after recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2016 starting 33 games with 186.1 innings pitched, going 11-8 posting a 3.43 era with a career best holding batters to a 223 average and a 1.23 WHIP. Lynn will be turning 31 with a new opportunity to thrive in his new role with the Twins. The Twins are a young team with raw talent that showed off there potential last year in AL Wild Card against the Yankees. The weakest part of the team last year and in Twins history has been there pitching which has now been fixed. With Ervin Santana on the DL, the Twins still role 3 deep in there rotation with a star on the rise in Jose Berrios, young and promising Jake Ordorizzi, and Mr. Reliable Lance Lynn. Lynn has never been the must see TV pitcher to watch, but always brings it to the field when he's on the bump. Lynn has been consistently starting around 31-33 games going 175-200 innings posting a career era of 3.38. Lynn is best when locating his sinker and 4-seam low in the strike zone creating ground outs while having a solid changeup that sets up his 4-seam to blow by some batters or going with his curveball which has an average rate spin and velocity. The only difficulties Lynn might encounter is changing leagues facing a DH on a regular bases and better lineups and the curse most pitchers encounter when joining the Twins like Ricky Nolasco or Phil Hughes. This is also an important season for Lynn to prove to the league why they should've locked him up on a long term deal then make him survive off a 1 year deal. The Twins are now in a comfortable position knowing that this season they will have 4 solid starters throughout the majority of the season will pitchers like Anibal Sanchez, lefty Mejia, and Phil Hughes all pushing for the 5th spot in the rotation. Also with Minnesota's young and exciting lineup featuring Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and Eddie Rosario leading the way and adding power in the DH spot with LoMo who hit 38 bombs last season with the Rays, we can see Lance get a lot more run support than what he was offered in St. Louis. With all this being said it doesn't change that fact that Lance will do what he does best and start another 30-33 games pitching 180-210 innings posting a 3.75-3.25 era with 155-180 K's. The Twins are an exciting team to watch now in this upcoming season and with Lance Lynn on the bump we can see them make a better playoff run than last year.
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