For those of you hoping Jon Lester would be returning to the Cubs in 2021, there’s disappointment for you tonight:
Left-handed starter Jon Lester and the Washington Nationals are in agreement on a one-year deal with a mutual option, pending physical, sources familiar with the contract told ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 19, 2021
After a phenomenal six years in Chicago, Lester off to D.C. to join Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin.
I’m one of those who wanted Jon to return to the Cubs, so I’m disappointed. At this writing we don’t have a dollar figure for Lester’s signing with the Nationals, so we can’t really make any suitable comparisons with what the Cubs might have offered or what any of us might have thought he would have warranted. I’m pretty sure the Cubs wouldn’t have offered a mutual option for 2022, though, and so that was likely the deciding factor in his decision to join the Nats and his former Cubs teammate Kyle Schwarber.
The last part of that paragraph felt weird to type, but... you all knew the World Series group wasn’t going to stay together forever, right?
For those of you who think Lester’s “done,” well, I guess we’ll find out soon, right?
I’m disappointed he won’t post his 200th win in a Cubs uniform, if he indeed gets that far. He’s also 103 strikeouts short of 2,500 for his career.
As I noted in the article here announcing the signing of Schwarber by the Nats, the Nationals will be at Wrigley Field for a four-game series May 17-20, and the Cubs travel to Washington for a three-game set July 30-31 and August 1.
I wish Jon well in Washington, and even if he doesn’t wind up pitching in either of those series, he will surely get a hero’s welcome when he returns to Wrigley Field.
I wrote this appreciation of Jon last October, and what I said at the end still holds true today:
The signing of Jon Lester brought someone to the Cubs we’d never quite seen before — a player steeped in victory (two World Series titles, a no-hitter) and someone dedicated to charitable work in the community. His signing, along with other savvy moves by Theo & Co., brought us the World Series championship all of us had dreamed of, forever.
Hope you’re back, Jon. If not... thanks, most sincerely, for the memories.
Poll
Jon Lester signing with the Nationals...
This poll is closed
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56%
... bad news. Was hoping he’d be back with the Cubs
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32%
... it’s OK. He’s probably done
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10%
... don’t care either way