Reynaldo Lopez, Lance Lynn headed to new teams

Lance Lynn is going back where he started.

Two former White Sox pitchers agreed to terms on new contracts with new teams Monday.

Reynaldo Lopez is headed to the Atlanta Braves on a three-year, $30 million contract. Meanwhile, Lance Lynn is going to the St. Louis Cardinals. He's got a one-year deal worth $11 million, with incentives that could earn him as much as $14 million. The contract also includes an option for 2025 that could increase the value to $25 million.

Lopez, who turns 30 in January, bounced from the White Sox to the Los Angeles Angels to the Cleveland Guardians last season. After a rough start with the Sox, his final season numbers don't look too bad -- 3-7 with a 3.27 ERA in 68 games, with six saves. Lopez fanned 83 batters in 66 innings.

Feel free to insert the joke here about the Braves wishing to re-create the Sox bullpen. Lopez rejoins his former teammate Aaron Bummer, whom the Sox traded to Atlanta late last week.

But in a different twist, it appears the Braves are interested in possibly making Lopez a starter. According to a tweet sent Monday by Ken Rosenthal, Lopez will prepare this offseason as if he will be a member of the rotation, and Atlanta will explore the option in spring training.

Lopez hasn't been a full-time starting pitcher since 2019. That didn't work out for him in Chicago, but if he makes it work in Atlanta, that would justify the investment the Braves have made here. If Lopez is just going to be a seventh-inning reliever or something similar, you can find guys to do that role for less than $10 million AAV.

Lynn, 36, made 32 starts last season -- 21 with the Sox and 11 with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- but that's one of the few positives he can take from his 2023 campaign. He went 13-11, but had an unsightly 5.73 ERA. He had a -0.8 WAR and gave up a league-high 44(!) homers over 183.2 innings. 

The Cardinals know Lynn well. He pitched in St. Louis from 2011-17 and won a World Series there in 2011. No doubt, the club is hoping the veteran has at least one decent year left in his arm.

In other starting pitching news, a major name agreed to a contract over the weekend. Aaron Nola is staying with the Philadelphia Phillies for seven years and $172 million.

What might this mean for White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, whose name has been mentioned in trade rumors? 

There are still some good free agent pitchers out there, including NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, World Series champion Jordan Montgomery and Japanese import Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Nola has set the market for those guys by agreeing on a contract worth $24.5 million AAV.

Meanwhile, Cease is not a free agent. He's arbitration eligible with a suggested salary of $8.8 million. He has two years of team control remaining.

If Lynn can pull in $11 million in free agency coming of a rough year, then Cease is a tremendous value in this marketplace. Sox general manager Chris Getz should keep that in mind, if he is indeed entertaining trade offers for Cease.

Texas Rangers take 2-0 series lead in ALCS

Coming into the American League Championship Series, the Texas Rangers were 8-32 in their previous 40 games at Houston.

That doesn't matter much now, does it?

The Rangers won each of the first two games of the ALCS in Houston, beating the Astros, 2-0, on Sunday night and following it up with a 5-4 victory on Monday.

Texas left-hander Jordan Montgomery outpitched Houston ace Justin Verlander in Sunday's matchup. Montgomery tossed 6.1 shutout innings, while Verlander gave up two runs over 6.2 innings.

On Monday, the Rangers jumped on Houston starter Framber Valdez for four runs in the first inning, then held on for dear life in the late innings. 

Nathan Eovaldi improved to 3-0 in the playoffs. He gave up three runs over six innings, but his big achievement was pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the bottom of the fifth. That was the moment you felt as though it was the Rangers' night.

Is it the Rangers' year? Well, they are 7-0 in the playoffs, including 6-0 on the road, and now they get to go home with a commanding lead in the ALCS. 

Texas beat the 101-win Baltimore Orioles in the Division Series as part of a remarkable group of upsets. The 90-win Philadelphia Phillies slayed the 104-win Atlanta Braves, while the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers.

It's been a crazy playoff year so far, and that's sparked some calls for changing the playoff format. Supposedly, the regular season has been "devalued" by these results.

Thing is, none of this is all that surprising. Baseball is unlike other sports in the sense that in a short series, a weaker team can beat a stronger team. It happens every week during the regular season, and we don't say a thing about it. When it happens in the playoffs, it's the end of the world.

Honestly, if you want to "reward the regular season," you can't have an expanded playoff. If you have 12 postseason teams, then every one of those 12 teams has at least a puncher's chance.

Right now, the Rangers are playing their best baseball, and they've got the defending champion Astros on the ropes.

White Sox travel to New York for weekend series with the Yankees

When the season first started, I saw a lot of people forecasting an American League Championship Series matchup between the White Sox and the New York Yankees.

Welp, it's May 21, and that's still plausible. Neither team has done anything to make you believe they can't make the postseason. The Sox are 26-16 and in first place in the AL Central. The Yankees are 25-19 and in third place in a tightly packed AL East.

I hesitate to say this is "a potential playoff preview," because there's a long way to go, and both teams have some key injuries anyway.

At any rate, here are the pitching matchups for a series that will probably get some national attention:

Friday: Carlos Rodon (5-1, 1.47 ERA) vs. Jordan Montgomery (2-1, 4.75 ERA)

Saturday: Dylan Cease (2-0, 2.41 ERA) vs. Gerrit Cole (5-2, 2.03 ERA)

Sunday: Dallas Keuchel (3-1, 4.44 ERA) vs. Jameson Taillon (1-3. 5.73 ERA)

American League news: Yankees dealing with early injuries

Luis Severino

The New York Yankees are among the favorites in the American League this season, but they have had some bad news on the injury front during the first couple weeks of spring training.

The Yankees on Tuesday announced that starting pitcher Luis Severino has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The two-time All-Star needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire 2020 season.

New York already is without left-hander James Paxton, who will be out through at least April after having something called microscopic lumbar surgery. Right-hander Domingo German will not be eligible to return to the roster until June 5, as he must serve 63 more games of an 81-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's domestic violence policy.

Don't cry for the Yankees too much, as they have the game's best pitcher, Gerrit Cole, at the front of their rotation. They also have veterans Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ to help hold things down until Paxton and German return.

But in the meantime, New York has two gaps in its rotation. Candidates to fill those roles include left-hander Jordan Montgomery and right-handers Jonathan Loaisiga and Luis Cessa.

In news that broke Wednesday, Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton's ability to start the season is in question because of a Grade 1 strain in his right calf. Manager Aaron Boone says Stanton will miss "a couple of weeks," which could make it difficult for him to be ready by March 26. Injuries limited Stanton to only 18 games in 2019.

Even with these injuries, New York is still the favorite in the AL East. That said, the Yankees could be vulnerable early in the season, and it would behoove the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox to get off to quick starts.