Like most tools, Twitter is glorious and fantastic when used properly. It’s an electric toothbrush. Yeah, I have one of those. And they’re great.
But if you try to use an electric toothbrush as a table, it probably won’t work so well. Just don’t blame the toothbrush.
There was some extreme ridiculousness earlier today on Twitter involving Jon Lester, and, if you missed it, you’re all the better for it. Suffice it to say, some spurious “reports” circulated that the Cubs were about to sign Lester and they weren’t properly ignored by enough people.
Thus, a bunch of legit reporters had to get refutations:
Source: No deal for Lester right now with any team. Still "going through the process"
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) December 3, 2014
Jon Lester is still a free agent -The Chicago Cubs are as viable as any remaining team .
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) December 3, 2014
Baseball source shoots down report of Lester agreeing with Cubs. "Nothing is happening — zero.''
— Sean McAdam (@Sean_McAdam) December 3, 2014
I just spoke to an excellent agent source. “Cubs are right there on Jon Lester but he has NOT agreed to any deal. Twitter is clueless."
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) December 3, 2014
Take whatever scraps of useful info from those as you can, and move on from there. Probably to some place where the Cubs do have a legit shot at Jon Lester, but nothing has been decided. For the most part, that was this morning’s update.
But there is something new to discuss: a report from Sean McAdam at CSNNE. An executive source tells McAdam that it’s “likely” that Lester makes a decision by the end of this week. McAdam’s sense, by the way, is that, if the money is very close, the pull of Boston will be strong for Lester.
The Cubs are believed to be at six years and $138 million, while the Red Sox are believed to be at six years and $130 million. If McAdam is right, is that difference enough to overcome the “pull” of Boston?
Of course, the better questions at this point are probably: (1) how much are the Giants offering?, (2) are the Yankees going to get involved?, (3) is there really a “mystery team” lurking to drive the price higher?, and (4) will it take a $25 million AAV and/or a seventh year to get a deal done?
I guess we’ll probably know soon enough.
(Aside: I’m aware that Peter Gammons may have offered a “hunch” on the radio today that Lester goes to the Cubs, but I haven’t been able to listen yet for myself, so I can’t speak to the context of his comment, which may not mean anything at all when you hear the whole thing. Just as I was very cautious to put too much into Gammons’ comments when he remarked that the Cubs thought Lester was going to the Red Sox, I’m going to be cautious when the shoe is on the other foot, too.)