Lester becomes latest World Series hero to return to Wrigley
The Cubs cleared out most of their World Series winners years ago.
Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez were traded in a two-day span in '21, then they let catcher Willson Contreras walk away as a free agent after the '22 season.
At the same time, the Cubs are trying not erase the franchise's greatest moment of the last 116 years from the memory banks completely.
Jon Lester will make his broadcast booth debut during Sunday's game at Wrigley Field. Dexter Fowler is a contributor to the Marquee Network. Jake Arrieta stopped by a few weeks ago. And of course, Kyle Hendricks took the mound for the Cubs on Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Rizzo and Baez are set to make their first returns to Wrigley Field later this season, health permitting. A 10-year reunion of the World Series champs is drawing closer. And at some point, the Cubs will be required to follow local tradition and decide on some sort of statue to commemorate the title.
Lester visited the press box Friday and admitted he wasn't sure what to make of one recent Cubs change. David Ross was Lester's personal catcher in Boston, and Lester was solely responsible for bringing Ross to Chicago for the final two years of his playing career.
Ross then worked in the front office and spent four seasons as manager before the Cubs decided to make a sudden change last November and replace him with Craig Counsell.
“Obviously when it's your buddy, it's a little harder to kind of see what's going on,” Lester said. “But when you kind of step back and look at it as a business aspect, stuff like that happens all the time.
“You just have to think that the Cubs are trying to do what's in their best interest. Like I said, when it's one of your buddies, it's like, 'Well that (stinks).'”
Lester was asked about any lingering hard feelings. Would Ross feel comfortable attending a 2016 reunion two years from now?
“I think he understood what was going on and understands the move,” Lester said. “As far as the 10-year thing, I would imagine that he'll probably be back in baseball shortly.
“When I talked to him around New Year's time, he said he was going to take this year off and kind of see where next year goes. He's kind of a guy that I believe will stay around baseball in some capacity.”
How about Ross managing the White Sox? That probably won't happen, but it will be interesting to see if any managing opportunities come his way after the season.
We'll never know how this Cubs season would have turned out with Ross as manager. Realistically speaking, if the Cubs were nine games under .500 on July 3, Ross likely would have been fired. At this point, the Cubs know Counsell isn't going anywhere.
Neither is Hendricks, apparently. With Hayden Wesneski going on the injured list Saturday, Jordan Wicks moving to the 60-day IL and Ben Brown still working his way back from a neck strain, the Cubs need their veteran right-hander more than ever.
He tossed 7 shutout innings in St. Louis before the all-star break, then cruised through the first 4 innings against the Diamondbacks on Saturday, running his scoreless innings streak to 11.
Lester made his last pitching appearance in 2021, which means he's approaching the date when he'll be up for Hall of Fame consideration. It's probably fair to say Lester is a borderline candidate, maybe a bit of a long shot to get in.
Working in his favor is a 200-117 career record, nearly 2,500 strikeouts and a 2.51 postseason ERA in 26 games. He won three World Series titles, two with Boston.
“I don't think about that,” Lester said. “If I get that phone call, obviously I'll be the happiest person in the world. But I'm not counting the days down till that day by any means.
“My big thing is I don't want to get my hopes up and be disappointed. So take it day-by-day and hopefully my name's on there and there's a few people that decide to check that box and kind of see where it goes from there.”