The Chicago White Sox acquired a big workhorse for their starting rotation.
Lance Lynn was traded from the Texas Rangers to the White Sox on Tuesday for right-hander Dane Dunning and lefty Avery Weems. The deal was agreed to at the end of the first day of Major League Baseball’s virtual winter meetings.
Lynn was be reunited in Chicago with new manager Tony La Russa. Lynn was a rookie pitcher for the 2011 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, who beat the Rangers in seven games in the last season La Russa managed in the big leagues before returning to the White Sox this offseason.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Lynn was 22-14 in 46 starts the past two seasons for the Rangers, with 335 strikeouts over 292 1/3 innings. The right-hander has an $8 million salary in 2021, the final season of a $30 million, three-year contract he signed with Texas two winters ago.
The on-the-rise White Sox are coming off their first playoff appearance since 2008, going 35-25 and finishing tied for second in the AL Central before losing to Oakland in their wild-card series. Lynn will be in the top three of a rotation that features right-hander Lucas Giolito and lefty Dallas Keuchel.
In nine big league seasons with the Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees and Rangers, the 33-year-old Lynn is 104-71 with a 3.57 ERA in 260 games (236 starts).
Texas was an AL-worst 22-38 in the pandemic-shortened season and had three 22-year-old rookies in its starting lineup on the last day of the season.
Managing partner Ray Davis said the Rangers were still in a rebuilding mode earlier Monday during the formal introduction of new general manager Chris Young. Texas named Young last week to that role after Jon Daniels had served as both president of baseball operations and GM since 2013. Daniels, who had been GM since 2005, is still president of baseball operations.
While the Rangers didn’t move Lynn at the Aug. 31 trade deadline, they did send All-Star lefty Mike Minor to Oakland. After the season, they declined an $18 million option on right-hander Corey Kluber, the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner they acquired last winter who pitched just one inning before a shoulder injury ended his season.
Dunning, 25, was 2-0 with a 3.97 ERA over 34 innings and seven starts last season.
Weems, 23, was 5-4 with a 2.09 ERA over 14 starts in the White Sox minor league system in 2019 after he was selected on the sixth round of the amateur draft.
.
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.