A surprising announcement was made by the St. Louis Cardinals earlier today, revealing that right-hander Lance Lynn will be out for the 2016 season as he undergoes a Tommy John surgery. 

The Cardinals revealed the news via a post on the team's official Twitter account, writing, "#STLCards pitcher Lance Lynn underwent "Tommy John" surgery earlier today. Lynn, 28, will miss the 2016 season."

ESPN reports that the surprise operation is for the athlete's torn ulnar collateral ligament. Aside from that, the surgery will also transpose the 28-year-old's ulnar nerve and remove his bone chips.

Lynn already missed a few starting pitches in June because of a forearm strain. The news comes after another top prospect of the Cardinals, Alex Reyes, got suspended for 50 games from testing positive with drug abuse for the second time.

Slowly, the Cardinals are seemingly showing its weakened team as many of their star players are either injured or suspended. Not only that, Cardinals player John Lackey will reportedly be a free agent this year, giving the possibility that the team will lose him and his 2.77 ERA and 218 innings this season, the Bleacher Report reveals.

Meanwhile, because Lynn would be out of the picture, with a record of a 2.87 ERA over the last two seasons and a 3.38 ERA over 756.2 innings since 2012, not to mention becoming an All-Star in 2012, it is speculated that the Cardinals would be solving the team's manpower problem on the winter market.

Derrick Goold of St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reported that the Cardinals' general manager John Mozeliak was urged to be active on the winter market. "Mozeliak acknowledges Lynn injury alters offseason plan. Team has not done big free-agent deals for pitchers. Could change. #cardinals," Goold revealed via Twitter. 

Bleacher Report speculates that Mozeliak would be smart enough to take in a top starting pitcher to replace Lynn. However, there are still no official statements coming from the Cardinals, confirming their latest final move in light of the recent injuries and suspensions that they have encountered.

Meanwhile, Bleacher Report further reveals that the Cardinals still have Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Jaime Garcia lined up for 2016, which might just get them some wins even when they lost one of their best starting pitchers for the whole season.