"Lester-back-to-Boston" talk won't go away
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Contributing Writer
The rumors surrounding a Jon Lester return to Boston won't die, fueled at times by Jon Lester himself. First, you had Lester favorite a tweet from Bill Simmons, now it's Lester saying where he plays in 2015 and beyond won't be determined by money.
Here's excerpts of an interview he did with the Boston Herald's John Tomase:
"My time there, the memories and all that stuff, don’t get erased based on this whole ordeal,” Lester told Jon Tomase of the Boston Herald. “I’m glad with where I’m at, and I understood where Ben [Cherington] was at. At the end of the season, it’s not going to change my mind about going back there if they are aggressive and competitive and do the things they say they’re going to do. Boston is definitely a place I would go."
“They told me, ‘We’re going to be aggressive. You’re going to get blown out of the water by some of these (other) offers,’ ” Lester recalled. “I’m like, ‘I don’t need to be blown out of the water.’ Why would I need to be blown out of the water? That doesn’t make or break your decision, at least for me. I’m not going to the highest bidder. I’m going to the place that makes me and my family happy. If that’s Boston, it’s Boston.”
“In the greater scheme of things, we’re talking about just a stupid amount of money,” he said. “For me, I want to be comfortable. The way I look at it is, if someone gives you $170 million and someone gives you $150 million, is that $20 million really going to change your lifestyle? Same thing if the highest bidder is $100 million and the team you’re going to feel most comfortable with offers $80 million. Is that $20 million really going to make the difference in your lifestyle?”
We'll just have to wait and see, but the signs (at least for a desperate fan base going through a rough season) are positive right now that Lester just may be back in a Red Sox uniform on Opening Day. Until then, let's all hope and pray that these aren't just empty rumors.