Morning Marquee: Cubs to introduce Jon Lester today

The Chicago Cubs will officially announce their prized signing Jon Lester  today at  1 p.m. CT at Spiaggia’s restaurant in downtown Chicago. Lester signed a six-year, $155 million deal with a $30 million signing bonus. He will head a revamped rotation including “new” again Cub Jason Hammel to go along with 2104 breakout stars Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks. Cubs fans can catch the news conference as it will be streamed live on MLB.com, Cubs.com, and At Bat.

The Washington Nationals and Bryce Harper have agreed to a two-year deal according to sources. Harper and his agent Scott Boras had a grievance hearing scheduled for Tuesday if they could not reach an agreement. Boras believed Harper should be able t opt out of his 2015 contract and enter arbitration. He will now be eligible for free agency after the 2018 season.

Koren shortstop Jung-Ho Kang will be posted Monday according to a report from FoxSports.com. Kang, 27, has played the last seven seasons for the Nexen Heroes of the Korean Baseball Organization. His career numbers of .298/.382/.502 include four seasons of 20 or more home runs. The numbers can be deceiving as Korean baseball is an extremely offensive league. Teams average 5.7 runs per game, compared to the MLB mark of 4.1.

In a bit of sad news, Sy Berger, the father of the modern baseball card, has passed away from natural causes at the age of 91. Berger worked for Topps until 2002. The concept of the card was created while sitting at his kitchen table with cardboard and a pair of scissors. For over 30 years, players were paid only $75 to use their name and likeness on the cards, and in most cases that was applied to buy something from the company catalog. Berger is survived by his wife Gloria, his daughter Maxine, and his two sons Glen and Gary.

Here are some of the stories from yesterday:

‘Chicago Hope:Cubs to introduce Lester today’ – MLB.com

‘Baseball card pioneer Sy Berger, 91, dies’ – Call to the Pen

‘Harper, Nats reach two-year deal, avoid grievance’ – MLB.com

‘Formers Cubs pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa signs with the Texas Rangers’ – Cubbies Crib