Chicago Cubs: Jon Lester’s Personal Catcher Has Retired – What Now?
Lester and Ross, Carlton and McCarver, Dickey and Thole. The names sound more like a shingle with lawyers’ names on it. But actually, they’re a team within a team. An ace pitcher and his favorite battery mate becomes a marriage made in heaven. Until fate ends the marriage as is the case of Jon Lester, who has seen his personal catcher David Ross retire. What’s next for Lester?
According to the Bible on anything baseball, Baseball Reference defines a personal catcher as “a catcher who catches one pitcher in order to give the regular catcher a day off. This catcher rarely catches the other pitchers on the staff. A personal catcher is often used with a knuckleballer. The idea goes back to the 1930s, but it has become more prevalent in recent years.”
But this definition is not expansive enough to include the wide range of reasons why a team might use a personal catcher. For instance, the New York Mets have seen a need to intervene with Noah Syndergaard who has shown a weakness with his inability to hold runners on first base. So the Mets are forced to use a strong-armed catcher on days he is pitching. But he is not a “personal” catcher like we find in the next example.
The Los Angeles Dodgers raised some eyebrows when they made a trade mid-season that sent A.J. Ellis to the Philadelphia Phillies. With Ellis went Clayton Kershaw‘s personal catcher. Neither party was happy about the trade and later when Kershaw faltered in the playoffs, some were quick to point to the breakup of their relationship as the reason.
The situation with Jon Lester and David Ross is somewhat different, though, in that their pairing is dissolving only because Ross played his last game Wednesday night when the Cubs earned a World Series title. Of note is that neither Ross nor Lester started the game and they entered as a tandem when Lester was called on as a reliever.
The search for a replacement for Ross as Lester’s personal catcher is ongoing from this point forward. That is, if there is going to be a replacement. Because it’s possible that Lester would decide to relinquish his desire to have a personal catcher during his remaining years with the Cubs. With the afterglow of a world championship still surrounding Lester and all involved parties, it’s likely that the subject hasn’t even been broached yet.
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This would to be the most likely development because these two comrades go back to even when Lester was with the Red Sox. And when Lester signed a multi-year deal last year, the Cubs wasted no time in bringing Ross in so the duo could continue to operate on hitters in the National League.
If Lester does decide – and as an elite pitcher in baseball, he does get to decide – it would only be because he has someone in mind that he’ll inform the Cubs about, and they in turn make every effort to make it happen. There doesn’t appear to be anyone on the current Cubs roster who would step right in, so more than likely Lester will start the season at least without a personal favorite. Another way of looking at it, though, is that Lester and Ross had to start somewhere.
Manager Joe Maddon has yet to weigh in, too. Obviously, he loses some flexibility in the way that he manages and more than likely he would rather not have to even deal with it. And after what he’s accomplished this season, you’d have to say that he at least carries some weight around the Cubs as well.
Next: Legacy and Career of David Ross
Jon Lester’s personal catcher is not the biggest story around the Cubs these days. But what happens here bears some watching because it could have an impact on the Cubs’ season next year in a lot of ways.