When the Boston Red Sox traded Jon Lester to the Oakland A’s at the trade deadline, the popular knee-jerk reaction was that they are giving up on 2014 and will bring the lefthander back when he becomes a free agent after the season. Will it actually happen?
Here are the facts. The Red Sox rarely ever sign pitchers who are over the age of 30 to massive contracts. Lester turns 31 in January, and he will be seeking at least $20 million per year for six seasons. Before trading Lester, Boston’s best offer to him was four years and $70 million. That’s laughable for a player with Lester’s resume.
All that said, Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com cites a “well-connected baseball executive” who believes the Red Sox will break from their usual principles and bring back Lester.
Lester, one of the best postseason pitchers in MLB history, went 16-11 last year with a 2.46 ERA. He has thrown 200-plus innings in six of his last seven seasons and threw 191.2 innings in the one where he didn’t hit the 200-inning mark. He has always been very durable.
Shortly after the Red Sox traded Lester, he started favoriting tweets from Red Sox fans who were hopeful he would return to Boston. David Ortiz also said that he expected Lester to be his teammate again at some point in the future. And to top it all off, Lester has been open in stating that he will not simply sign with the highest bidder in free agency.
If the Red Sox do bring Lester back, they will have essentially loaned him to the A’s for a few months in exchange for promising young outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. Although, there have been some rumblings about Cespedes not being long for Boston.
While we have no way of knowing the Red Sox intentions, we do know that their pockets are plenty deep. Given Lester’s history in Boston, they shouldn’t have all that difficult of a time signing him if there is legitimate mutual interest.
