■ Cubs pitcher Jon Lester is ready to put one of the worst seasons of his career behind him.
Cubs vet determined to rebound from 1 of his roughest seasons
MESA, Ariz. — Jon Lester threw his first effective changeup of 2020 during a news conference while discussing his new arrangement with catcher-turned-manager David Ross.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but he took me out of games plenty of times,” Lester deadpanned. “So, this won’t be anything new.”
The preferred scenario for Lester, Ross and the Cubs, however, would be Ross delivering a pat on the back instead of Lester handing him a baseball after a rough outing.
With one guaranteed year left on his contract, Lester, 36, is determined to rebound from one of his roughest seasons in an otherwise dependable 14-year career.
Lester remains one of the best free-agent signings of President Theo Epstein’s regime, but part of their legacies are at stake as the Cubs try to remain competitive with the chore of upgrading their uncertain future drawing near.
The 6-foot-4 left-hander reported to spring training noticeably leaner, and that can only help him avoid some of the nagging injuries that have affected his performance during the last two seasons. In 2019 he was limited to 1712⁄3 innings — his fewest in any full season.
Since signing a six-year, $155 million contract in December 2014 that helped transform the Cubs into a perennial playoff contender, Lester admits he’s had to rely more on sharpness and smarts due to a dip in velocity.
That has become more evident after last season, when he allowed 101 runs and a National League-most 205 hits. A left hamstring injury suffered while running to home plate on April 8 sidelined him for 2½ weeks and ended any realistic chance of achieving his annual goal of throwing 200 innings.
“I’ve been doubted before,” Lester said. “I don’t really care. I know what the effort and the preparation that I put in every five days. I know that at 36, I’m not 26 anymore. I know that I have a lot of miles on my body and arm, but at the same time I feel like I can still bring a lot to this team.
“I think I’ve proven a lot of people wrong throughout my career. I’ve been there plenty of times, and I’m excited for this year.
Part of the optimism involves an array of changes, including increasing his leg strength, tweaking some pitching tendencies to and playing for Ross, Lester’s former teammate who takes over for Joe Maddon, who helped spark the Cubs’ renaissance with Lester.
“Contracts expire, we all become at some point free agents, and sometimes we need a different scenery,” said Lester, who needs to pitch 200 innings to have his 2021 option for $25 million automatically vest. “Sometimes we need a different voice. It can be a lot of things. You hear about players that get traded, and they come over to a new team. And it’s like, ‘I just needed someplace new,’ or they signed a free-agent deal and say, ‘I just needed someplace new.’
“I think it benefits all of us; I think it benefited Joe kind of coming full circle with his career, going back to (the Angels). He’s going to do phenomenal for them. It would be nice to (face) them in the World Series. But sometimes you need a new voice.
“Sometimes it doesn’t matter who the voice is. You just don’t perform. And I think sometimes managers get too much of the blame for us not performing.”
Lester accepted his share of blame, as he finished with a 4.46 ERA, his highest since a 4.82 mark in 2012 with the Red Sox.
“Sometimes I could be a little more hardheaded when it comes to what made me successful and what makes me successful, and I think I got away from some of that last year and put me behind the 8-ball,” Lester said.
Lester concurred with catcher Willson Contreras’ observation that the shape of Lester’s pitches can accurately dictate his performance. Opponents batted .294 against Lester in 2019, including a .319 mark by left-handed hitters.
“I’m just not a spin-rate guy, so through that side of it I don’t think benefits me,” said Lester, who did say the high-speed cameras that break down release points have helped him make some adjustments on occasion.
One indicator that seems to show how Lester will perform is the sharpness of his signature cutter.
The pitch was in vintage form during a three-game stretch shortly after Lester returned from the injured list when he allowed no earned runs in 192⁄3 innings in wins against the Mariners, Marlins and Brewers from May 1-12.
Lester hopes that form returns more often in 2020.
“I feel like I’m in a good place mechanically, and that’s kind of one of my checkpoints that we figured out last year that we tweaked and got me kind of back on track for that,” Lester said. “It’s about angles, it’s about how the pitches are coming out of my hand, where it’s coming out of my hand, and so forth. So, there’s a lot of little minor things in there that have to go right to make pitches and execute and get guys out.”
Ross maintains that Lester still possesses “front-of-the-rotation” potential. And Lester admits it’s “weird” that Ross, his teammate for 4½ seasons, is his manager.
“But he’s my boss,” said Lester, who has been known to display his displeasure after being pulled from games.
“When he decides that the game’s over for me, the game’s over. Now I have had times where I’ve gone in to talk to Joe or Tito (Terry Francona) or John Farrell. I’m sure we’re going to have times where I come in and talk to David, but I’ve never disrespected my manager, and I hope people understand that. I’m a competitor.
“I definitely don’t want to come out of games. At the end of the day I can look myself in the mirror and usually 10 out of 10 times say, ‘OK, I should have come out of that game,’ regardless of my emotions.”