What It Would Take for the Yankees to Land Jon Lester
September 24, 2014 · Gary Phillips · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
After a rather mediocre season, the New York Yankees are sure to have a few prized free agents on their shopping list this winter. There is no doubt that Jon Lester is one of those guys.
A former Red Sox, Lester could be the latest player to break the hearts of Boston fans should he bolt for The Evil Empire. Of course, Lester is currently a member of the playoff-bound Oakland Athletics, so he still has some baseball left to play in 2014. Oakland acquired him and Jonny Gomes at the July 31 trade deadline for Yoenis Cespedes.
Lester will be a free agent at the end of the year, and the Yankees are expected to be one of his suitors.
The Yankees have some rotation issues they would need to resolve before making a run at the ace. They will have CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and Shane Greene under contract in 2015, though the first two are currently rehabbing from injuries and their return dates are no safe bets.
Hiroki Kuroda will be a free agent after the season and could possibly return home to Japan. Either way, he will not be a Yankee in 2015. Brandon McCarthy will also be a free agent. With the dominant numbers he has put up in pinstripes, New York should want him back.
If they do, that would give the Yanks six starters under contract, two of whom are presently health concerns. Of those two, one (Sabathia) is scheduled to make $23 million, so he is going to pitch as soon as he can. On the other hand, Greene has established himself as a big league pitcher this year, a guy certainly deserving of a spot in a big league rotation.
To make room for Lester, or any other top of the line starter, someone has to go. It will not be Sabathia or Tanaka. Pineda is arguably the second best pitcher there, a guy who when healthy belongs at the front of a staff.
That means McCarthy cannot come back or the Yankees try to trade Grenne and/or Nova. If that is what it comes down to, they should take Lester over any of those guys.
Another obstacle to get around is the sentimentality Lester will have toward his other suitors. The Chicago Cubs are very likely to be in play thanks to Theo Epstein, the team’s president. Epstein served as the Red Sox general manager while Lester was in Beantown. It is also worth mentioning that the Cubbies have a surplus of young talent that could have them contending two or three years into Lester’s next deal.
Then there are the Sox themselves. It would be weird seeing as how Boston failed multiple times to sign Lester to an extension, but the 30-year-old said he would be welcome to a reunion earlier this year, according to Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com. In response to whether he could return to Boston:
Yeah, why not? I mean, [Boston] is what I know, this is what I love. Like I’ve said plenty of times, this is where I want to be. And if they trade me I completely understand. No hard feelings. I know what they have to do for their organization and if that involves me, so be it. If it doesn’t I’ll keep running out there every five days and pitching.
There will also be other teams involved, not just those two.
Between competitive suitors and a surplus of pitchers, the Yankees have a few things to take care of. Money will not be an issue when courting Lester, and neither should the likes of Greene, Nova and McCarthy, regardless of how good they have been in the past. Lester is better, plain and simple.
There is no front-runner in this race, but you can count on the Yankees doing everything possible to land Lester, this winter’s top free agent.
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