The video begins with Lance Lynn and that familiar grin he had when he had something to say, something he knew a teammate was eager to hear or a reporter was eager to quote, some sharp little quip or biting secret.

This time it turned out to be an announcement.

During a new episode of his wife’s podcast, Dymin in the Rough, Lynn, the longtime Cardinals pitcher, says he’s retiring Tuesday morning from Major League Baseball. At 37, Lynn retires with a 143-99 record and 3.74 ERA in 364 big-league games, 340 of which were starts. His decision to retire assures that he finished his career in the same place it began — with the Cardinals. In 2024, Lynn went 7-4 with a 3.84 ERA in 23 starts for the Cardinals.

His wife, Dymin Lynn, began the podcast, which was released on Tuesday morning, by jumping right into an hourlong conversation with her husband holding back his news behind a Cheshire grin and his beard. She suggested they start with the statement.

“Baseball season is upon us, and I’m right here on the couch, and that is where I’m going to stay,” Lance Lynn said. “I am officially retiring from baseball, right here, right now.”

A two-time All-Star, Lynn pitched for six different teams in his 13-year career. Drafted 39th overall out of Ole Miss in 2008, Lynn debuted with the Cardinals in 2011 and won a World Series championship as part of the Cardinals’ resolute bullpen that October.

Lynn spent seven years of his career in the majors with the Cardinals, and his time with the club spans an era when a brawny right-hander like him was urged to throw a sinker over and over and over again, until he showed there was more horsepower (and more success) if he let the velo fly. Lynn famously let loose with four-seam fastballs in a playoff game for Class AAA Memphis that repositioned him in the organization’s plans because of his power game.

He created a career by fearlessly and unapologetically throwing fastballs.

He could manipulate their movement in games with as much whimsy as he would answer questions about them from media after the game.

In seven years for the Cardinals, Lynn went 79-51 with a 3.43 ERA in 206 games, 184 of them starts. He remains one of the team’s all-time leaders in postseason appearances with 24, 17 of which came in relief.

The Cardinals signed Lynn to a one-year deal in November 2023 for a reunion because they wanted his sturdiness in the rotation and his seasoning in the clubhouse. Lynn pitched through knee soreness and a knee injury up until his final pitch, which he delivered to complete a quality start and win against the Pirates at Busch Stadium.

Lynn struck out five and limited the Bucs to a run on Sept. 17 in a win that put the Cardinals back above .500.

He had many members of his family and friends there at the game.

“The way that I went out last year was a big thing, too,” Lynn told his wife on the podcast about making the decision to retire. “I’m going to finish my last play as a Cardinal, in Busch Stadium, on a win, everybody was there. We made it a thing that day. I don’t think there is any reason to try to keep going and have it end differently or have the last one different than that.”

A pivot and reduction in payroll began this past offseason when the Cardinals declined an $11-million option for 2025 on Lynn’s contract. 

That made the right-hander a free agent.

He received some interest from teams, advertised that he would be open to relieving or closing, and yet did not get the offer that lured him into spring training. On the podcast, Lynn said the money “didn’t work out” with some of the offers, and as spring played out and opening day arrived he became more aware about how he did not miss “being there every day.”

Lynn has three daughters, and one of the reasons he was eager to return to the Cardinals was the chance to pitch close to them and his home in Illinois.

In recent years, Lynn has appeared on podcasts (even once on the Best Podcast in Baseball) and shows like Foul Territory — stages that gave him a chance to flex the wit behind the gruff exterior, while not sacrificing the colorful language that he would pepper opposing batters with on the field. Toward the end of the conversation with his wife, Lynn jokes that if he ever delivers an induction speech at a Hall of Fame it would begin and end with, “You’re welcome.” Even the timing of his retirement announcement, on April Fools’ Day, was a sly wink from Lynn.

The entire conversation between Lynn and his wife also touches on his feelings about retirement and some topics about mental health. 

“Hope it was fun,” Lynn said at the conclusion of the episode. “They don’t make it like this. … All in all, everybody knows why it’s time. When you know it’s time, it’s time. I think I was fighting with knowing.”

At the beginning of the episode of Dymin in the Rough, Lynn did not detail what he planned to do in his retirement, saying only later he planned to farm and fish and do a lot as a father.

He did smile as he teased what’s next in baseball, though.   

“There might be something fun around the corner,” Lynn said. “Stay tuned.”

“While everybody was in here chilling, I was in there swinging,” shortstop says of going to the batting cage looking for a stop to his 0-for-14 start, sluggish spring.

Angels score two runs in the 10th inning without needing a hit to rally and then edge the Cardinals, 5-4, on a chilly Monday night Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals got contributions from 23 of the 26 players on their roster. So how do they maintain it?

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