In the end, there was more to Jon Lester's signing choice than the dollars in his own pocket. A man doesn't take the second-best offer on the table because he's only in it for the money. Lester himself made the point after the meeting that finally turned him into a six-year, $155 million Cub.
"The thing I liked about 'em," Lester told reporters, "is it wasn't forced and wasn't a sales pitch. It was like, 'This is what we can do.' I don't want B.S. I don't want show. I don't want glitz and glamour. I don't want to walk out to the field with your name and number on the JumboTron. I'm not 18 anymore. I want you to tell me what you can do for me and my family."
In Lester's case, what could be done for him and his family wasn't merely financial security but respect and accommodation for their charity activities. Himself a survivor of large-cell lymphoma, Lester and his wife Farrah created the NVRQT campaign on behalf of children's cancer and contribute considerably to the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, named for the one-time pitcher and pennant-winning Reds manager who fell to cancer in 1964. Lester himself was treated at the center when he was stricken.
"During meetings with teams," writes Yahoo! Sports's Jeff Passan, "he stressed the importance of his charity work. The Cubs' emphasis on it during their mid-November meeting–while most of his other get-togethers included strictly ownership and baseball-operations people, Chicago brought in community-relations personnel–stuck with Lester, as did the straightforwardness of (team president Theo) Epstein and (general manager Jed) Hoyer."
Certainly it didn't hurt that Lester and Epstein have had a friendly relationship since Epstein's days running the Red Sox, for whom Lester's pitching helped big toward two World Series rings. But don't think the Cubs don't have visions of World Series rings of their own now that Lester will pitch in their silks. And don't think Lester doesn't drool even privately, and maybe once in a while, over the possibility that he could become the first man in baseball history to win World Series rings with the Red Sox and the Cubs.
Yes, these are the Cubs who, under Epstein's leadership, have made plain they were looking to build for long-term success. Yes, signing Lester has the fragrance of going all-in, all-now to some extent. But they'll have Lester anchoring their rotation until he's 35, and it's not necessarily foolish to think he'll be just what they hope him to be for most of the life of the deal.
In nine seasons to date Lester's been worth 32.6 wins above a replacement-level pitcher. He's coming off one of his best seasons to date: a 2.46 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP, a 3.13 fielding-independent pitching rate, and a 4.58 strikeout to walk ratio. And that was despite the midseason trade from Boston to Oakland, after the Red Sox low-balled him on a contract extension in the spring.
He's been a remarkable postseason pitcher, too, mostly, if you remove his sad wild card game of this past October. (It wasn't exactly Lester's fault A's manager Bob Melvin left him in a little too long, but the A's bullpen did a marvelous job of letting the Royals hunt and peck their way back to a one-run deficit on Lester's dollar.) But he's been Madison Bumgarner deadly in the World Series thus far: a 0.43 ERA, a 0.76 WHIP, and three wins in two Series.
The Giants were ready to hand Lester $168 million for seven years, and they sent assorted brass plus all-world catcher Buster Posey to romance him. The Red Sox's last offer was six years and $135 million, and they sent owner John Henry to Lester's doorstep twice to talk things over. The Dodgers and the Braves were somewhere in the mix as well. ESPN's Buster Olney says Henry and his CEO Larry Lucchino need to face Boston squarely and say, simply, "We blew it." (Lester offered the Red Sox a hometown discount prospect last winter, and the Red Sox thanked him by confusing "discount" with "lowball.")
Meanwhile, that must have been some champagne party to which the Cubs treated themselves at the winter meetings. The rest of baseball? They probably hit the whiskey bottles running. Lester's deal, as Jayson Stark notes, puts eyes upon Max Scherzer and even James Shields. Never mind how Shields's Big Game James image was battered this postseason. And Scherzer's agent Scott Boras has already let it be known his man is going for very big dollars.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon has said the Lester signing is tantamount to winning the lottery. Cub Country has visions of conquest more precious than a mere lottery. And Stark knows the deal puts every eye in baseball upon the Cubs now.
[I]n the long term, this sport has to grapple with a much bigger question: What should everybody now make of the Cubs?
From the day Epstein and Hoyer walked in the door in 2011, their plan was not to hope they get lucky and win a World Series some day. Their plan was to build something deep and powerful and lasting, a team with a shot to win in October every year.
They didn't know then that the plan would include signing Lester. But because, three years later, they were able to sell what they had already built, the acquisition of a true ace has given them the type of credibility they didn't have a week ago.
And it allowed them to dangle in front of Lester the thought of what it might feel like to be the guy on the mound the day the Cubs win the World Series—for the first time in more than 100 years. How 'bout that thought?
It's probably not a smart idea to hand the Cubs the 2015 World Series just yet, as a few people seem inclined to do. But it may not be a dumb idea to hand them one some time during the life of Lester's contract, either.
The Cubs are run by a man who has more than a small idea of what it's like to yank a long-bedeviled franchise back to the Promised Land. Their starting rotation now pushes up front a pitcher who knows what it means to yank that formerly-bedeviled franchise back to that Promised Land a measly three seasons after the long bedevilment ended. And time was, just a little over a decade ago, when people laughed at the very idea of even that first yank.
The Red Sox wheeled and dealt for Curt Schilling to take them into 2004. He took them far further. It's not unreasonable to presume Cub Country hopes convincing Jon Lester to take the Cubs into 2015-2020 (his contract features a seventh-year vesting option) might yield a similar end result. Whether in 2015 itself or somewhere within the life of his deal. Hopes.
Once upon a time, on Opening Day at Wrigley Field, the Cubs' starting pitcher was about to stride forward and deliver to the plate when a fan in the box seats held up a placard saying, Wait Till Next Year! A few years earlier, George F. Will (author of this year's best baseball book, A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred) wrote thus: "For most baseball fans, the saddest words of tongue or pen are, 'Wait till next year.' For us Cub fans, the saddest words are, 'This year is next year'."
At this writing, two prominent Las Vegas sportsbooks have considerable odds in favor of next year. Westgate SuperBook gives the Cubs 12-1 odds to win the 2015 World Series. The William Hill sports books have it at 16-1. And in case you've forgotten the occasional powers of Hollywood suggestion, good or bad, be reminded that Back to the Future Part II predicted the Cubs would win ... the '15 Series.
Try this one on, if you will. For generations the maxim has held, "The team with the most ex-Cubs loses." Lester's signing has stirred concurrent whispers that Red Sox incumbent David Ross and one-time Red Sox Jonny Gomes, each current free agents, may be Chicago bound. An increasing volume of people are making book that, after October 2015, if not some October within the life of Lester's contract, the maxim will hold, "The team with the most ex-Red Sox—on the field, in the front office, or both — wins."
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