After meeting with the Boston Red Sox on Monday, left-hander Jon Lester reportedly has an undisclosed contract offer on the table from his former team. However, he visited the Chicago Cubs yesterday while the St. Louis Cardinals have jumped into the sweepstakes.
According to Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston, the Red Sox don't expect Lester to make an immediate decision on their contract offer, although Peter Gammons said yesterday that the Cubs believe the left-hander will sign with Boston. It's unknown why the Cubs said such a thing before even meeting with the free-agent, but it could have some credibility because Chicago's front office has former Red Sox executives.
Nonetheless, Lester has continued his free agency tour since meeting with the Red Sox earlier this week. He reportedly met with the Cubs yesterday, but the team would not confirm the meeting. Chicago has been speculated to be one of the front-runners for Lester ever since he rejected Boston's contract extension offer in April. The Cubs are in desperate need of starting pitching and have the financial flexibility to pay a top-tier free agent to join their staff, and it appears Lester is the one they're most interested in.
The team missed out on signing catcher Russell Martin on Monday when the Toronto Blue Jays gave him five years and $82 million. Chicago was believed to be a front-runner for him as well because of their financial flexibility and need of an experienced veteran catcher. Will they risk losing out on another coveted free agent? It'll be interesting to see if the Cubs made Lester an offer before he left Chicago.
Next up for the left-hander is the Atlanta Braves. A league source told MLB.com that Lester would be meeting with the Braves on Thursday, which comes a few days after the team cleared $11 million in salaries in a trade with the Cardinals that sent outfielder Jason Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden to St. Louis in exchange for starting pitcher Shelby Miller and a minor leaguer. It's unknown how serious the Braves are in terms of immediately offering Lester a lucrative multi-year deal because they still might have to rid themselves of outfielders Justin or B.J. Upton because of their large salaries. Justin Upton will be making $14.5 million in 2015 while B.J. is owed $46.35 million through 2017. However, their young core of Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons, Julio Teheran and Craig Kimbrel may attract Lester.
But all of these teams must now face more competition since the St. Louis Cardinals are reportedly interested in Lester after trading Miller to Atlanta, according to ESPN's Jim Bowden. Prior to the trade deadline this past season, the Cardinals expressed interest in both Lester and left-hander David Price, but didn't want to part ways with talented prospects. But now that they've added Heyward to bolster their offense and Walden to improve the bullpen, the team might be looking to acquire Lester to join Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn in the starting rotation.
This adds a whole new spin on Lester's choice because the Cardinals have been one of the most successful teams in baseball in the last decade, during which they've reached the World Series four times and won twice.
There could be more information regarding Lester after he meets with the Braves on Thursday.
