The Jon Lester Signs w/ Cubs - 6 yrs/$155 Million

[UMFan83]

From Paul Sullivan:

 

After I congratulated a top Cubs’ executive on the Lester deal in the hotel lobby late Tuesday night, he already had moved on.

 

“Yeah, I’d like one more,” he said.

 

“An outfielder?” I said.

 

“One more starter,” he replied.

[UMFan83]

Cubs WS Odds went from 40-1 to 12-1 after signing Lester lol

[toonsterwu]

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/jon_leicester_autograph.jpg

 

Raisin, you might remember more than I do, but besides Leicester and Mitre, who was the other "under-the-radar" arm from the grouping that there were some hopes on. I don't think I'm thinking of Nolasco. I think I'm thinking of a guy that snuck into the back end of a top 10. Ah, dammit, I'll go look.

 

Was it Todd Wellemeyer?

 

Wellemeyer ... I remember being quite intrigued with him.

 

Totally derailing things for a second, but for the life of me, I always liked Jim Bullinger. Well, that's because that was one of my first baseball cards (so weird, digging through old boxes the other day, I found my entire small collection ... a lot of ex-Mets ... and a stamp collection that I don't recall doing, but my folks said I was into it for a bit).

 

Nah, was thinking Renyel Pinto as they were on a BA list at the same time (with Leicester). Sean Marshall, Billy Petrick, Grant Johnson were other arms on that list as well. Marshall, at least, turned into something.

[SouthSideRyan]

trade for zimmerman plzkthx

Almora, Baez, Alcantara, Edwards, Villanueva/Vogelbach, PJ, Tseng for Zimmerman and Harper.

 

Tseng's only trade value is in the mind of Luke from BN

[UMFan83]

Hmmm...

 

Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Lester's signing bonus is $30 million, paid over the life of the contract, according to a source familiar with the terms.

 

Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Other incentives negotiated by Lester & his agents, the Levinsons: Full no-trade and $25M vesting option for 2021 or $10M buyout. (More)...

 

Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Sources say Lester's option vests if he pitches 200+ innings in 2020 or 400+ combined in 2019 & 2020. More to come at espn.com

[sneakypower]

Where the heck is nocode today?

 

He posted earlier.

getting comfortable in his new mod role

[toonsterwu]

From Paul Sullivan:

 

After I congratulated a top Cubs’ executive on the Lester deal in the hotel lobby late Tuesday night, he already had moved on.

 

“Yeah, I’d like one more,” he said.

 

“An outfielder?” I said.

 

“One more starter,” he replied.

 

Weren't there rumors awhile ago that some folks expected the Cubs to land Scherzer AND Lester? I doubt it, and I think I might be "scared" of that, but I'd be mighty curious which top executive Sullivan talked to (guessing Hoyer ... maybe Epstein), so makes me wonder if they might go after another big fish.

 

That said, they really should add one more starter, trade or FA, and then figure something out with the spare rotation parts.

[WrigleyField 22]

Hmmm...

 

Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Lester's signing bonus is $30 million, paid over the life of the contract, according to a source familiar with the terms.

 

Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Other incentives negotiated by Lester & his agents, the Levinsons: Full no-trade and $25M vesting option for 2021 or $10M buyout. (More)...

 

Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Sources say Lester's option vests if he pitches 200+ innings in 2020 or 400+ combined in 2019 & 2020. More to come at espn.com

I don't understand what a "signing bonus" paid over the life of the contract means... Like $5M in advance at the beginning of each season?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fro]

Olnley on BBTN just said Theo says Cubs are "going for it" this year, window has accelarated by 2-3 years. Maybe going after more pitching (Shields, Zimmerman) or an Upton. Theo is definitely not finished this offseason.

 

2-3 years? The Cubs weren't expecting to compete until 2017-2018? Thank God Lester chose the Cubs

 

I think the traditional national baseball media didn't realize that the Cubs were basically .500 after the selloff. I think Theo always intended to try to compete but getting Maddon & Lester is making him more aggressive to try to win big in 2015.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Where the heck is nocode today?

 

He posted earlier.

 

He needs canonization here

[Guest]

From Paul Sullivan:

 

After I congratulated a top Cubs’ executive on the Lester deal in the hotel lobby late Tuesday night, he already had moved on.

 

“Yeah, I’d like one more,” he said.

 

“An outfielder?” I said.

 

“One more starter,” he replied.

That's my boy.

[UMFan83]

Lester is 0-36 lifetime as a hitter with 1 walk. We've made a terrible mistake!

 

Also according to Sherman he did not attempt one pickoff throw to 1B last year. Only 21 SB attempts again him though

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

honoring a legend

[George Hayduke]

Game on.

 

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/09/good-day.gif

[Little Slide Rooter]

So Keith Law doesn't think the Cubs are contenders because he thinks Lester is replacing Hendricks in the rotation and that the bullpen is a weakness.

Well, I don't think he's replacing Hendricks, but I do think they could use another starter to have all those back end options compete for one spot instead of two. Not to mention Hammel and Arrieta have some injury history. And, pitchers.

 

And Rob Neyer doesn't think the Cubs are contenders because they got outscored by 100 runs and has a long way to go to upgrade the offense.

Well, adding (at least) 100 points of OPS to the overall catcher position sure won't hurt. I think the bigger point is this: there were 6102 PA total for the Cubs last year and 1586 (26%) of those went to Whiteside, Watkins, Olt, Kalish, Baez, Schierholtz, Baker and Lake. In that 1/4 of the teams' total at bats, those gents had an aggregate OPS of .566. If you can eliminate those horrendous results in over a quarter of the PA's, the runs will be there.

 

Really, what it comes down to is these guys using the terms "contenders" and "favorites" interchangeably.

[rawaction]

Lester is 0-36 lifetime as a hitter with 1 walk. We've made a terrible mistake!

 

Also according to Sherman he did not attempt one pickoff throw to 1B last year. Only 21 SB attempts again him though

 

That's worth at least $5Mil to me personally. I [expletive] hate pickoff throws that don't result in pickoffs.

[Guest]

Cubs WS Odds went from 40-1 to 12-1 after signing Lester lol

 

That's from the start of the offseason. They went down to around 20-1 after getting Maddon.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Is this the first time a thread has gone over 60 pages and the Cubs actually GOT the player they targeted?

 

Recent high profile targets:

 

FA:

Furcal: No

Bradley: Yes

Pujols: No

Fielder: No

Sanchez: No (though talk didn't really heat up until the report that we'd signed him)

 

Trade:

Roberts: No

Harden: Yes

Peavy: No

Granderson: No

Garza: Yes

 

And of course, Epstein: Yes

[minnesotacubsfan]

Cubs WS Odds went from 40-1 to 12-1 after signing Lester lol

 

That's from the start of the offseason. They went down to around 20-1 after getting Maddon.

 

10/1 here

 

http://www.vegasinsider.com/mlb/odds/futures/

[Banedon]

@JArrieta34

 

@JLester31 Welcome sir. Utmost respect and admiration for what you bring to the table. Can't wait.

 

@JLester31

 

@JArrieta34 Thanks bro, the admiration is mutual, can't wait to get to work!

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

@JArrieta34

 

@JLester31 Welcome sir. Utmost respect and admiration for what you bring to the table. Can't wait.

 

@JLester31

 

@JArrieta34 Thanks bro, the admiration is mutual, can't wait to get to work!

http://i.imgur.com/k11N8UL.gif

[SouthSideRyan]

[RynoRules]

From Paul Sullivan:

 

After I congratulated a top Cubs’ executive on the Lester deal in the hotel lobby late Tuesday night, he already had moved on.

 

“Yeah, I’d like one more,” he said.

 

“An outfielder?” I said.

 

“One more starter,” he replied.

 

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131108023841/vampirediaries/images/6/6c/Scrubs-Fanning-Self-JD.gif

[Rob]

 

Steak night!

[UMFan83]

@JArrieta34

 

@JLester31 Welcome sir. Utmost respect and admiration for what you bring to the table. Can't wait.

 

@JLester31

 

@JArrieta34 Thanks bro, the admiration is mutual, can't wait to get to work!

 

Love Jake Arrieta even more after following him on Twitter...cool dude. Montero seems to have a good twitter presence too.