CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox added a veteran arm to their rotation, acquiring right-hander Lance Lynn in a trade with the Texas Rangers for pitcher Dane Dunning and prospect Avery Weems, the team announced Tuesday.
Lynn, 33, joins Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel to give the Sox one of the top trios of starters in the American League. He's entering the final year of a three-year contract he signed with the Rangers in December 2018.
Lynn went 6-3 with a 3.32 ERA in 13 starts during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He had 89 strikeouts in 84 innings and finished sixth in AL Cy Young Award voting, one spot behind Keuchel and one ahead of Giolito.
"Lance is one of the most proven and dependable starting pitchers in baseball," said Sox general manager Rick Hahn in a statement. "He provides us with another power arm and gives us three proven starters at the top of our rotation, while at the same time deepening our rotation and allowing some of our younger pitchers additional time to develop."
The trade was first reported Monday night by ESPN's Jeff Passan.
Lynn finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting in 2019 after going 16-11 with a 3.67 ERA and 246 strikeouts in 208 1/3 innings. He has a 104-71 career record with a 3.57 ERA in 260 outings (236 starts) for the St. Louis Cardinals (2011-17), Minnesota Twins (2018), New York Yankees (2018) and Rangers (2019-20).
He was a National League All-Star in 2012, and as a rookie in 2011, he pitched for Sox manager Tony La Russa's last Cardinals team that won the World Series.
With a 5-4 record and 4.80 ERA in 26 career postseason appearances, including seven starts, Lynn could provide a boost in experience to a team with lofty postseason goals in 2021.
Dunning, who turns 26 this month, went 2-0 with a 3.97 ERA in seven starts as a rookie in 2020. He had 35 strikeouts in 34 innings.
He started Game 3 of the AL wild-card series against the Oakland Athletics but was pulled after four batters, allowing two hits and recording two outs, in the season-ending 6-4 loss.
The Sox acquired Dunning with Giolito and pitcher Reynaldo Lopez from the Washington Nationals for outfielder Adam Eaton on Dec. 7, 2016. Eaton is reportedly returning to the Sox after agreeing to a one-year deal Tuesday.
Dunning missed the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery and recovered to join the Sox rotation for the stretch drive as they made their first playoff appearance since 2008.
"I would like to thank the White Sox for giving me the experience of a lifetime," Dunning wrote on Twitter. "I'm excited to start my journey as a Texas Ranger!"
Weems, 23, was a sixth-round pick in 2019 out of the University of Arizona. He went 5-4 with a 2.09 ERA in 14 rookie-league starts that year in the Pioneer and Arizona leagues.
