Tuesday, CSN Chicago reported that the Cubs had made a significant contract offer to Jon Lester:
During his "Kap and Haugh" radio show Tuesday morning, CSN's David Kaplan shared the latest info he had from sources on the Cubs' pursuit of Lester: "What I'm hearing is the Chicago Cubs have made a significant offer - significant north of $135 million," Kaplan said.
Kaplan further clarified that in a late Tuesday article that contained these tweets:
Latest on Lester: Solid east coast non-team source told me Cubs being very aggressive (135+). Team has been in radio silence... Won't talk.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) November 26, 2014
Just to be clear on Jon Lester. Good source says #Cubs made significant offer. 2nd source says $ not big factor for Lester. May be less.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) November 25, 2014
Three MLB sources this afternoon tell me Lester likes Cubs and Chicago a lot but all 3 would be surprised if he didn't go back to Boston.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) November 25, 2014
(Incidentally, that second one is also for all of you who say that the player always takes the most money.)
That's what we knew Tuesday. Wednesday morning, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal filed this interesting report:
At least three teams pursuing Lester - #Cubs, #RedSox, #Braves - are seeking a backup catcher. Could go for package deal with David Ross.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 26, 2014
We've talked about Ross here before. Ross will be 38 in March and didn't hit all that well in 2014 (.184/.260/.368, though that's quite a bit better than John Baker's 2014 and Ross' career OPS+ is 97), but if he and Lester got along well while in Boston and Lester would like to have him as a personal catcher, it would probably be worth bringing him on as a backup to Welington Castillo.
There's one more note I found this morning:
Hearing Cubs offer to Lester is 6/$140. Currently the highest offer on the table for him.
— Julie DiCaro (@JulieDiCaro) November 26, 2014
Don't know how reliable that information is, but if Lester is going to take "the most money," there's "the most money," at least right now. It's unknown whether the Cubs would up that offer, or whether they could offer the signing of Ross as an enticement to sign Lester.
Given that the holiday weekend is almost here and Lester still has a meeting scheduled with the Cardinals, we're not likely to hear anything about him signing until next week.
Unless Theo & Jed want to have him over for Thanksgiving dinner. That worked for Theo before, right?