Lance Lynn isn’t interested in the hand-wringing over the Dodgers.
The former Cardinals right-hander pushed back hard on the idea that Los Angeles is somehow damaging the sport, calling out the people complaining about the way the Dodgers operate. On the “Cardinal Territory” podcast, Lynn framed it as a simple case of one team doing more with its resources than the rest.
"The way I see it is, there's 29 billionaires b****ing about another billionaire doing it better than they can do it," Lynn said. "Every team had the ability to give up four or five names that people have never heard of for Skubal.
They didn't. The Dodgers did."
That reaction came in the middle of a broader debate that has picked up steam around the Tarik Skubal trade, with fans and owners criticizing the Dodgers’ approach. Lynn’s point was blunt: other clubs could have made similar offers, but they chose not to.
He also noted that not every team was going to chase a player like Skubal, and the Cardinals themselves were never positioned to go that route. St. Louis was selling at the deadline and is in the middle of a rebuild, so a move like that was never part of the plan.
Still, the gap between markets is real. The Cardinals are not operating on the same financial level as Los Angeles, and that makes landing elite free agents harder.
But Lynn’s view, and the facts of St. Louis’ own history, suggest that spending power is not the whole story.
The Cardinals have shown before that they can go big when the moment calls for it. They signed Matt Holliday to a seven-year deal in 2010, brought in Willson Contreras in 2023 and added Sonny Gray the following year. So while the franchise may not match the Dodgers dollar for dollar, it has the ability to make major moves.
And there’s another path, one St. Louis has traditionally relied on: building from within.
The Cardinals have long done well drafting and developing talent, then layering free-agent additions on top. That model has worked for them before, and it remains part of their identity even as the Dodgers continue to thrive with a different blueprint.
For now, the Cardinals still have a rebuild to manage. But their early success this year may have nudged that timeline forward a bit. If that continues, the offseason could bring a more aggressive approach.
And if St. Louis really wanted to swing for the fences, Lynn suggested there’s even a version of the Skubal pursuit that could make sense. The Cardinals might not be able to offer a long-term commitment, but a short-term, high-dollar deal is at least a possibility - the kind of contract pitchers have been willing to take in recent years.
In Other News...
Cardinals Left Fans With One Big Deadline Question
Chaim Bloom spent the final stretch before the MLB trade deadline reshaping the Cardinals roster, dealing pitchers Dustin May and JoJo Romero along with outfielder Lars Nootbaar while bringing back prospects such as Alexander Frias and reliever Caleb Ferguson. It was the kind of deadline work that signaled St. Louis was willing to make real changes, not just nibble around the edges, and it gave the front office a chance to restock a system that had been waiting for a jolt.
Even with those moves in the books, the bigger conversation around the Cardinals lingered on the names that never moved. Ryne Stanek, Pedro Pages and Nolan Gorman all surfaced as players who could have been considered in trade talks, which left fans wondering how far Bloom and the club might have been willing to go. The deadline passed with those questions still hanging in the air, and for a team trying to balance the present with the future, that uncertainty may matter just as much as the deals that actually got done. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Buck Sparks A Bigger Cardinals Debate Over Michael McGreevy
Joe Buck helped put a familiar Cardinals discussion back in the spotlight when he criticized Oliver Marmol for pulling Michael McGreevy early against the Yankees. McGreevy had just given up a two-run homer in the fifth inning, and the decision came with his pitch count climbing, but the moment mattered because St. Louis is trying to sort out who can really hold up in its rotation as the season unfolds.
For a team in a rebuilding year, these choices are about more than one outing. The Cardinals need to know whether their young starters can work through trouble, take a hit and keep the game moving, or whether the safer move is to protect them before things unravel. Bucks comments only sharpened a bigger debate that is going to keep following McGreevy and the rest of the staff. [Read more 🡒]