Chicago Cubs: Jon Lester knows what his team needs from him

Left-handed veteran Jon Lester has made 128 regular season starts as a member of the Chicago Cubs. But he’s far from settling heading into the 2019 campaign.

When Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer signed Jon Lester to a six-year, $155 million deal ahead of the 2015 season, they had one goal in mind: add one of the game’s best big-game pitchers to help the Chicago Cubs break their century-plus World Series drought.

The southpaw did that and then some, leading the Cubs to the brink of the Fall Classic in 2015 and finishing as the National League Cy Young runner-up as the club won it all the next year. When he took a pretty notable step backward in 2017, everyone seemed ready to write him off as over the hill. He answered those doubters with 32 starts of 3.32 ERA ball at age 34.

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Since Lester came to the North Side, Chicago has won a minimum of 92 regular season games, reached the postseason in four consecutive years for the first time ever and made three-straight NLCS appearances. Is it a coincidence that all this happened in the wake of Lester joining the former Lovable Losers?

Hardly.

But at age 35, he still has his fair share of critics who believe he’s no longer capable of leading his club back to the World Series. The three-time champion is embracing it all and when speaking to MLB.com, made it clear – he’s going to prove them wrong.

"“I expect more out of myself than anybody in that front office or on the field or the fans,” Lester said. “That 200 is still my number. There’s a lot of games throughout last year where I couldn’t put guys away, which gets me to that seventh inning. A lot of games with 90-something pitches into the sixth and your spot comes up and you have to kind of bow to the manager on that.”"

After eclipsing 200 frames in both 2015 (205) and 2016 (202 2/3) – he fell off in a fairly dramatic way in each of the last two seasons. He managed just 180 2/3 and 181 2/3 innings since leading the Cubs to their long-awaited title – despite making the exact same number of starts all four years (32).

And don’t tell Lester the metrics suggest he’s been a benefactor of good luck – especially as an 18-game winner a year ago. The veteran continues to bring an old-school line of thinking to a game dominated by new-age thinking. But you know what? It works well for the gritty vet.

"“An out’s an out. It’s always been an out,” Lester said. “I’m sure you could probably go back to Hall of Fame pitchers and break down Barrel rates and hard contacts and FIPs and all this other stuff. But at the end of the year, you know, 18-6 with a [3.32 ERA] is pretty good.”"

So while everyone is talking about how this might be a sub-.500 team that’s quickly fallen out of favor in a loaded National League Central, remember one thing. Jon Lester is far from done. He’s hungry – and ready to lead Chicago back to the top of the baseball world.