White Sox Close to Making Trade with Rays

The Chicago White Sox are currently in serious talks to trade right-handed starting pitcher Lance Lynn to the Tampa Bay Rays according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

Lynn, 36, is scheduled to start for the White Sox Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field against the Cubs, but he may be close to getting dealt away to the struggling AL East contender.

Once names have been exchanged you know things have progressed to the final stages of a deal. The White Sox may be at the point where they are evaluating from the players the Rays have said they’re willing to trade for Lynn.

Earlier this week, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that Lynn had a limited no-trade list in his contract. The Rays were one of those 10 teams. However, Rosenthal reported that Lynn would waive the no-trade clause to pitch for a contender and on Wednesday Nightengale confirmed that the current White Sox pitcher would indeed accept a trade to Tampa Bay.

Following Tuesday’s 7-3 loss to the Cubs, the White Sox fell to 20 games under .500, and 41-61, they have the fourth-worst record in MLB.

So far in 2023, Lynn has struggled with the long ball, already allowing 28 home runs in 20 starts. The 28 surrendered homers this year have already passes Lynn’s previous season-high of 27 home runs given up back in 2017 with the St. Louis Cardinals. Lynn has a 6.18 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in 115 innings this season.

However, some of those awful-looking numbers have certainly been inflated solely because Lynn has been left in games to eat innings for the White Sox. There have been several games when Lynn probably should have been taken out by the fifth inning, but because of a taxed bullpen and/or other reasons, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol has allowed his veteran to keep going.

After trading for Lynn following the 2020 season, the White Sox signed Lynn to a two-year extension worth $36 million. Lynn’s contract also includes an $18 million club option for the 2024 season.

After a red-hot start to the regular season, the Rays have been meandering through the past couple months and are now 1.5 games back of the first-place Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. The Rays began the month with a 6.5 game lead, but since then they’ve gone 5-14.

At 62-42, Tampa Bay is still positioned to make the postseason, but they certainly need a boost to their pitching staff. While not awful, Rays starters have a 4.01 ERA since the beginning of July, ranking 12th in MLB.

The Rays have been targeting Lynn for a while and if they or any other team gets a deal done with the White Sox, they’ll be on the hook for about $6 million for the remainder of the 2023 season.

The Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds have also been linked to Lynn in trade rumors the past month.