Jon Lester was claimed on waivers, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). It's not clear which team(s) claimed the left-hander, who was on waivers one week ago. Evidently the Red Sox decided to pull Lester back off of waivers instead of trading him or assigning his contract to the claiming team.
Lester will earn $11.625MM next year and his contract includes a $13MM team option for 2014. Here’s a recap of which players have cleared waivers, plus a list of players who have been placed on revocable waivers.
Dodgers
I have absolutely know idea who it could have been….
Good to no.
I Sea what you did Their
Bravo!
It was clearly a dodger reference.
Allegedly.
Wait.. this happened a week ago, and since pulled? Slow news day or what? No offense, but sounds routine to me.
The Red Sox are having a fire sale, how is that routine news? They trade Beckett, Gonzalez, and Crawford a few days ago, then last night the rumors start circulating that they won’t sign Ellsbury, and now they could presumably trade Lester? The Red Sox are 69-90 since last September and the owner wants his money back. Pretty simple when you think about it.
More importantly, Nick Punto was also traded to the Dodgers thus dooming the Red Sox season.
Clearly the most important part of the trade.
The whole world goes on waivers… Check with your family attorney, you and I may have even been waived this month.
I think with the cleared up money from the Gonzalez/Beckett/Punto deal, the Red Sox would have more than enough money to resign him if they wanted to. And with the down year Lester is having, if he were to be traded, they would probably just wait until next year so that they would have more leverage in trade talks.
Sheesh, old news or not, who’s NOT gonna get claimed on waivers?
Dodgers.
For those of you saying Dodgers: Lester would have had to get through every AL team and most of the NL before the Dodgers even got a chance to claim him. I don’t think Lester, a top LHP in the game, even got through the AL.
I’m 100% sure that your sarcasm/joke detector is broken.
Twins make the most sense – rolling in cash, 3-4 open spots in the rotation and probably done as a prelude to the Mauer fishing expedition
Yankees claimed him lol
I bet Tampa claimed him first lol
Neither ERA nor WHIP are good metrics for pitcher performance. Since 2008, Lester has the 9th highest WAR in baseball. The lefties ahead of him? Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia. Granted, I’m not high on him moving forward, as his K/9 has dropped each of the last two seasons, but to say Lester is a third or fourth man in other rotations is simply inaccurate.
Not too mention he is a LH SP at fenway park and has been very successful, something nobody LH has managed to accomplished on a continual basis since bruce hurst, 25 years ago.
An example of how negatively Fenway park can affect LH SP, even ones that do not throw rubbish? Some of the people who are constantly hammering on lester (not you Devern) take a look at John Tudor and see how he was a back of the rotation SP with Boston, yet when he got away from Fenway was an Ace for the Cardinals.. Fenway park ate him alive.
Take Lester out of Fenway for half his games, loss of velocity and all as he is not throwing 95-7 anymore, but 93-4 and he would have put up even better numbers.
I love how you list the yankees in there, he is having a bad year this year, but the Yankees would slot him in at 2 or 3, Phillies he would be a 4, Giants would be a 4, and Nats he would be a 4, most other teams he would be a 2
In both 2009 and 2010, he was 3rd among LHP in WAR, and in 2008 he was 4th. He’s still a top LHP. It isn’t just “because he’s on the Red Sox,” as you so eloquently suggest. It’s a fact. He has struggled a little bit over the past year, but he is still very much a top-5 LHP.
And this is exactly why the Red Sox’s moneyball approach caved in so terribly on them. Statistical indicators like WAR are just fun trivia. Look through a list of LHP and you’ll find loads of LHP much more valuable than Lester. I’ll do it for you. Clayton Kershaw, David Price, Chris Sale, Cole Hamels, Gio Gonzalez, CC Sabathia, Jon Niese, Chris Capuano, Matt Harrison, Paul Maholm, Tommy Milone, Mark Buehrle, Ross Detwiler, Cliff Lee, Matt Moore, Clayton Richard, and CJ Wilson, just to name a few.
Yes, and the Phillies ruined their chances by having Cliff Lee instead of Ross Detwiler!
Yeah dude, econometric valuations are just cool little pieces of trivia!
Over 2011 and 2012, there have been 21 pitchers better than Lester. The better left-handers? Kershaw, Sabathia, Lee, Bumgarner, Price, Wilson, Hamels, Gonzalez, and Harrison. This season, Lester is 27th and the only lefties that weren’t mentioned above were Chris Sale and Miley, while Wilson dropped below Lester. You’re still wrong.
I could see him having been claimed as early as the Blue Jays to Partner him up with Farrell for next year.
I think it’s safe to say there is no way he made it out of the AL.
He is traded to the Pawtucket Red Sox for a bowl of soup and a slotted spoon.
ummmmmmmm…..huh?
From 2008-present (which INCLUDES his horrible 2012 season)
21st in FIP @ 3.53 (10th in the AL)
34th in ERA @ 3.61 (12th in the AL)
9th in WAR @ 23.9 (4th in the AL)
How in the world is that anything less than #1, or at worst, #2 on 90% of the teams in baseball?
You sir are incorrect. Name me a better lefthander not named Kershaw, Sabathia or Hamels.
bumgarner
dodgers.