Highly coveted free agent left-hander Jon Lester's road to a decision has been filled with rumors and speculation, but it appears he will choose a new home sometime this week.
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It was initially reported that the decision was narrowed down to the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs and that a decision will be made Tuesday, but it appears several teams remain in the mix while his final destination could be pushed back to Wednesday.
According to ESPN, Lester has multiple offers from different suitors for a deal in the range of $150 million over six years and his negotiations with those teams are slowing the process for him to make a choice.
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Aside from the Giants and Cubs, the Boston Red Sox are looking to reunite with the southpaw while the Los Angeles Dodgers are also looking to add to their already dynamic starting rotation. Lester's hometown Atlanta Braves were also in the mix early on, but they failed to compete financially with the other suitors.
The Red Sox dealt Lester in the middle of the 2014 campaign to the Oakland Athletics after he spent all nine seasons of his career in Boston. The team is hopeful he'll elect to return to the place where he won two World Series titles -- most recently in 2013 -- but they realize he could go elsewhere.
"We need to build a rotation and we need to be in on all sorts of stuff and we have been in on all sorts of stuff," Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said late Monday, according to ESPN. "There are probably 15 to 20 starting pitching scenarios we've talked about and worked on. Not all of those are going to land; more won't than will. But we're working as hard as we can. We're going to build a good rotation."
Lester, 30, went 16-11 overall between the Red Sox and Athletics in 2014 and ranked fourth in the American League with a 2.46 ERA and fifth with 220 strikeouts in 32 starts.
Lester is 6-4 in the postseason through 14 games (12 starts) with a 2.57 ERA and 73 strikeouts and he took the mound for the A's in their American League Wild-Card Game loss to the eventual AL champion Kansas City Royals this October. He received a no-decision in the eventual loss for the A's.
The free agent southpaw, who is a three-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion, is 116-67 in his nine-year career with a 3.58 ERA, 1.276 WHIP and 1,457 strikeouts.
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