Jon Lester’s days with the Oakland Athletics are over; what’s next?
After putting the finishing touches on perhaps his best regular season to-date, left-hander Jon Lester got the ball Tuesday night with the chance to end the Oakland Athletics’ recent postseason woes in an American League Wild Card matchup with the Cinderella story Kansas City Royals.
Prior to Tuesday’s loss, Lester had never allowed more than three earned runs in a postseason start on the road.
After allowing three runs in the first three innings, Lester settled down, retiring 12 straight at one point before serving up three more runs in the eighth inning that saw the Royals climb within one before eventually tying the game in the bottom of the ninth, en route to a walk-off, 9-8 win in the bottom of the 12th at Kauffman Stadium.
The 30-year-old’s final line of six earned runs on eight hits in 7 1/3 innings was, by several measures, the worst of his postseason career – which, to that point, had been largely impressive – especially his World Series run with the 2013 Boston Red Sox, when he allowed just one earned run in two starts against St. Louis, totaling 15 1/3 innings.
“I feel like I threw the ball better than what the linescore said, but when it’s all said and done, it is what it is,” Lester told MLB.com “I can sit here and say I felt better than what it said and had better stuff than what it said but that’s not going to do anything. The bottom line was that we lost. Regardless of how we got there, we lost. Now we’re packing our stuff and going home.”
Prior to Tuesday’s loss, Lester had never allowed more than three earned runs in a postseason start on the road. Even with home starts considered, he had allowed more than three earned just one time dating back to his first playoff appearance with Boston back in 2007 – and that came in a start against Tampa Bay in the 2008 American League Championship series, when he was hit for four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.
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Taking the 2014 regular season into account, Lester allowed more than three earned runs in a start just three times – never doing so following his trade to Oakland, where he posted a 2.35 earned run average and 1.070 WHIP in 11 starts totaling just under 77 innings. The last time he allowed more than three earned came back on June 7 at Detroit when he lasted just 4 1/3 innings and was hit for five earned on 12 hits. That’s a span of 19 starts – until Tuesday’s Wild Card loss.
So what’s next for the free-agent-to-be? Reports indicate that Lester has listed his Boston-area home for sale, sending Red Sox Nation into a confused frenzy as to whether or not this means their beloved southpaw has ruled out a return to the city where he helped bring multiple World Series titles. Previously, he told Boston Herald that a return to the Red Sox was definitely still a consideration.
“At the end of the season, it’s not going to change my mind about going back there if they are aggressive and competitive and do the things they say they’re going to do. Boston is definitely a place I would go.”
However, since that point, the Chicago Cubs have also emerged as a major player in the free agent market and are rumored to be a suitor for Lester and other top-notch starting pitching. Chicago’s President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein told reporters Tuesday that the team is ready to be active in the market this winter and expects to contend for a postseason berth in 2015, despite an 89-loss campaign this season.
Lester would undoubtedly headline the Chicago rotation as-is, but as the Hot Stove season heats up following the postseason, more suitors outside of Boston and Chicago will begin to make their cases to the former World Series champion in hopes of bringing his dominant postseason resume into the fold.
If there’s one lesson that big league front offices should take from Lester’s 2014 season, it’s not how the wheels came off late in a must-win game. It’s the fact that, for the seventh-straight season, he surpassed 30 starts, pitching to the tune of the fourth-best ERA in the American League. It’s that he has pitched at least 190 innings in each of those seasons, as well – only missing the 200-inning plateau one time since 2008.
“It’s a weird game,” said Lester. “You don’t see games like that in the playoffs very often. Unfortunately, we’re on the bad end of it. That’s a tough one to end on.”
The left-hander has been the epitome of consistency and dependability. Tuesday’s start behind him, there’s no doubt he’s ready to put it behind him and get back to the postseason. The only question now is – which team’s jersey will he be wearing next October?