Lance Lynn signed a three-year, $22 million with the St. Louis Cardinals before the 2015 MLB season. In an unexpected turn of events, the right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery on Tuesday.

The Cardinals announced the news on their Twitter account earlier today. Lynn, 28, will miss the entire 2016 season and probably force St. Louis to search the free agent/trade markets for another starter.

"In addition to having his ulnar collateral ligament repaired, Lynn also had his ulnar nerve transposed and bone chips removed," adds Andrew Simon of MLB.com. "The club had not previously divulged that Lynn needed the surgery."

Lynn has spent his entire MLB career with the Cardinals. He's 61-39 with a 3.37 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 766 strikeouts in 150 games (128 starts), totaling 791 1/3 innings over five seasons. He was expected to pitch alongside Adam Wainwright, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha and Jaime Garcia in 2016, which the Cardinals likely viewed as a formidable rotation.

Now, with John Lackey hitting free agency (the Cardinals gave him the qualifying offer), the team has some tinkering to do this offseason unless they decide to start 2016 with either Tyler Lyons, Tim Cooney or Marco Gonzales as the No. 5 starter.

Then again, at 37 years old, Lackey might be the first player in MLB history to accept the qualifying offer, which is worth $15.8 million this season.

St. Louis is not known to hand out long-term lucrative contracts. This year's free agent starting pitching class is packed with premier talent and players such as David Price, Zack Greinke, Johnny Cueto and Jordan Zimmermann are more than likely out of their price range.

"If the Cardinals don't want to break the bank -- they already have a bonafide ace in Wainwright, after all -- second-tier free-agent starters like Bartolo Colon, Doug Fister, J.A. Happ and Chris Young could be lower cost options. There's always potential trades as well," writes Mike Axisa of CBS Sports.

This is a big blow for the Cardinals, but general manager John Mozeliak addressed a number of injuries on the roster throughout 2015, so he'll probably find a way to cope with this major loss.

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