Chicago Cubs: The Jon Lester era officially comes to a close

Former Chicago Cubs starter Jon Lester finalized his deal with the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, agreeing to a small 1-year $5 million dollar pact.

Even though Lester is at the back half of his career, he still took a pay cut with a possible contender as opposed to staying on what appears to be the Cubs sinking ship.

With Lester officially on his way out, the Cubs have released “best of” type memory videos and salutes to Lester’s time with the club. Perhaps sensing he was on his way out the door, Lester tipped his cap to the Chicago faithful back in November by buying fans at various bars a free beer, ringing up a hefty $50,000 tab. Looking back on his career in Cubs blue, it is easy to see why he holds the organization and its fans in such high regard.

When the Theo Epstein regime came board, they knew they needed to take a big swing, and none were more pivotal than convincing Lester to come aboard what was at the time a burgeoning franchise back in 2015. As a three-time All-Star and two time World Series champion pedigree with the Boston Red Sox, he was the beacon to show that Chicago was a place where players would want to come.

Up to that point in the decade, the Chicago Cubs had been a mess as a team in transition in front office and on the field. Mired at the bottom of the standings, there wasn’t much major league talent to speak of, but they had been able to nail some high end hitters in the top 10 of the draft, and were banking on those lottery tickets that they would eventually cash in.

Lester stabilized a rotation that didn’t really know what it had when it acquired Jake Arietta as a reclamation project from the Orioles the year before. The same could be said for Kyle Hendricks, and threesome would eventually propel the Cubs to the NLCS in 2015, and the obvious World Series title in 2016.

As the Cubs saw frustrating playoff losses come there where after the Series victory, mostly due to stagnant offense, Lester proved to be a very capable starter as he began inching towards his mid-30’s. He may have never been an ace because their might be a dozen or less in MLB at any given time, but he was beyond a great second starter, and still gave the Cubs hope in their futile late decade playoff showings.

Lester will be remembered for his bulldog like mound presence as well as in the clubhouse. Even though he took up a sizeable chunk of payroll, he stayed almost completely healthy. The Cubs wanted to bring aboard a winner to help instill their culture, and Lester passed the test in spades, and frankly to them, it was worth the investment.