Nats sign Lester

[Band Beyond You]

https://www.mlb.com/news/jon-lester-nationals

[Frank Sereno]

On 1/18/2021 8:26 PM, Band Beyond You wrote:
> https://www.mlb.com/news/jon-lester-nationals
>
>
I heard yesterday that Lester tried to do the Andre Dawson deal
and give the Cubs a blank contract so he could come back, but I
guess they didn't want him even at close to the minimum. He
should be a serviceable #5 starting pitcher this year.

So what starting pitchers do the Cubs have under contract?
Hendrick, Alzolay, Mills? Is Quintana back? The White Sox are
taking off and the Cubs are going to suck. Why don't they just
pull the plug on the Marquee Network? It's not like the old days
when there were only about 7 channels and the Cubs were competing
with soap operas in the afternoon. We have hundreds of channels
and a ton of streaming services.

[Band Beyond You]

108 more years!

[Band Beyond You]

https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2021/1/27/22253174/jon-lester-cubs-salaries-tom-ricketts

Jon Lester says he’d have played for the Cubs for ‘just about anything’
this year

It’s a commentary on the state of the Chicago Cubs in 2021.

By Al Yellon@bleedcubbieblue Jan 27, 2021, 4:25pm CST


Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Jon Lester spoke to reporters Wednesday for the first time as a member of
the Washington Nationals.

This comment piqued my interest:


I had to read that several times to make sure I understood it.

“Meanwhile, he would have played for just about anything in ‘21 and
deferred the rest but team said no.”

Seriously? Like, Lester might have played for the minimum salary with an
unspecified amount deferred? Okay, maybe that’s being a little simplistic
about it, but if that is the case, I can’t see why the Cubs wouldn’t have
been able to pay Lester (say) $1 million, which wouldn’t have dented the
payroll (or luxury tax) too much and pay him more later.


Presuming this is true — and coming directly from Jon Lester I don’t see
any reason it wouldn’t be — this tells you exactly where Cubs ownership and
management stands, as we are three weeks... or probably more... to the
beginning of Spring Training.

You have probably seen this:


The Cubs account for $2.25 million of that $3.7 million with the signings
of Austin Romine ($1.5 million) and Jonathan Holder ($750,000). I suppose
their thinking is, “We still have some talent on this team, we can win a
bad division and keep some fan interest and maybe when we have three
million people back, we’ll spend again.”

Well. That’s not really the way to play winning baseball and it’s certainly
not the way to get those three million fans back in Wrigley Field, because
a lot of them are already upset at the way the Cubs have approached this
offseason. The non-signing of Jon Lester is just one more indication,
particularly if they could have had him for next to nothing in 2021.

The Cubs did post this well-done tribute video to Lester on Twitter today,
and it’s really good and definitely worth watching:


I wrote a tribute to Lester, too, last October, but I’d rather have the
player himself pitching for the Chicago Cubs in 2021. The fact that he
won’t over what appears to be a small amount of money speaks volumes.

Thanks for everything, Jon. You’ll always be a Cubs World Series champion.

[Frank Sereno]

On 1/29/2021 7:57 AM, Band Beyond You wrote:

<snipped earlier posts>

Thanks for posting this here. I haven't been to Al's site in a
long time. In fact, I haven't been to any Cub specific groups in
several years.

Glad to see that I'm not alone in how I feel regarding Lester
this year. Would he be great? Probably not. But he'd be a
serviceable number five starter. He's also a guy that can help
out the other pitchers with strategy. And he wouldn't have cost a
lot of money.

It looks like old Tom is more interested in buying up the
neighborhood rather than fielding a top notch baseball team.