The Chicago Cubs made an offer to Jon Lester that exceeded the one the Red Sox presented him with last week. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants will meet with Lester next week and could possibly inquire about Max Scherzer.
Lester met with the Cubs last week after he and his representatives met with the Red Sox twice. Boston offered him a six-year contract between $110-$120 million, which essentially began the bidding for the left-hander. Aside from the Red Sox and Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants have expressed interest in his services. According to David Kaplan of CSN Chicago, the bidding just got serious.
"What I'm hearing is the Chicago Cubs have made a significant offer - significant north of $135 million," he said on the Kap and Haugh radio show on Tuesday morning. "The other thing that I'm hearing is, the Giants aren't just making cursory interest. They are definitely interested."
One source told Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston that he believed the Red Sox's offer could reach $132 million, but now it looks like they'll have to go beyond that to land Lester. Although the team is fairly close to the luxury tax threshold of $189 million, principal owner John W. Henry indicated a possibility that they could exceed that number to sign Lester.
"The way it's structured, you can blow through [the threshold] one year,'' Henry said, via this ESPN article. "Again, for next year we have tremendous flexibility, so we could go through for one year. It would not overly affect us [trying to re-sign Lester], but we're hopeful.''
Boston's payroll is that high because they landed Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval on Monday, snagging Sandoval away from the World Series champion San Francisco Giants. As a result, the Giants have now kicked their free-agent endeavors into high gear and are meeting with Lester next week, could possibly put a bid in for Cuban outfielder Yasmany Tomas and might inquire about starter Max Scherzer.
But it doesn't stop there. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports provides some more insight:
"The Giants, champions three of the past five years, are thinking small and very big, as word is they've cast a wide net, initiating talks regarding several star players, including not only players who could fill obvious needs such as Justin Upton, Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis, Torii Hunter, Chase Headley and Tomas, and presumably also Jay Bruce and others, but also the two biggest starting pitchers -- Jon Lester and Scherzer."
San Francisco would have to trade for Upton, but the rest are available via free agency. Cruz, Markakis, Hunter and Tomas would provide good options for the corner outfield positions, with Tomas being the most expensive (expected to land a $100 million contract), followed by Cruz, Markakis and Hunter. Upton has a $14.5 million salary for 2015 and will be a free agent when the season ends, but it might not be worth it because the Braves want a lot in return for him. Headley would take over at third base and will likely be cost-effective.
But the acquisition of Lester or Scherzer would be earth shattering because one of them would accompany Madison Bumgarner at the top of the starting rotation. If Matt Cain comes back healthy and can return to form, they'll likely have the best rotation in the league with Tim Hudson and Yusmeiro Petit on the back end.
Just under two weeks remain until the winter meetings (Dec. 7-11), which is where a lot of trades and free-agent signings occur. Based on the aggression during this offseason we may see a lot happen before then.
