Pitchers and Catchers haven’t even officially reported, and fans already received quite the surprise.

Lance Lynn. Check this out!

Lance Lynn. Slim. (Twit Pic/Derrick Goold)

According to Derrick Goold of the Post Dispatch, Lynn’s dropped 20 pounds from the weight he entered into last season’s Spring Training. This doesn’t count the weight he had gained over the course of last season which obviously contributed to his last season struggles and inconsistencies.

Lance enjoyed being in the starting rotation and decided to enter this Spring Training proving it. 

Per Goold’s reporting:

The Cardinals put Lynn on a weight-training program and had the team’s chef visit Lynn’s house in Oregon to work with him on improving his diet.

“I was going to hire a nutritionist. I knew what I had to do this winter,” Lynn said. “Then the team came to me with some things and it was clear that we were already on the same page. There was nothing they asked me to do that I didn’t already want to do. It just made it better.”

Great news! I know I wasn’t alone in the disappointment felt when Lance didn’t pitch well at the end of the season. I really enjoyed the Lance who really stepped up when Chris Carpenter was injured and pitched like an ace no one knew he could be considered. The weight drop is obviously a sign that he wants to get back to that point as well.

That’s just one more piece to the Cardinals rotation puzzle solved. Here’s looking to more questions answered in the days to come.

Friends… Spring Training Baseball is ALMOST HERE!