Tonight, Jon Lester will make his final start before Opening Day (if I did my math correctly), on the strength of a healthy, but mostly ineffective Spring Training (11.1 IP, 12ER). Of course a “successful” Spring Training for an established veteran like Lester is really about warming up and staying healthy. So, in that respect he was quite successful.
Perhaps more importantly, despite being the Opening Day starter this year, I doubt the Cubs will lean on Lester this season as much as they have in the past. With guys like Yu Darvish, Cole Hamels, Jose Quintana, and Kyle Hendricks around to lighten the load, he needn’t (and probably won’t) be the best pitcher in the rotation. And that’s fine. All we’re really looking for out of Lester this season – at age 35 – is 32 starts and solidly average to slightly-above-average production. He’s certainly capable of much more than that, but that’s the bar.
So with that in mind, here’s to a healthy final start of the Spring and a great fifth season in Chicago (can’t believe it’s already been that long).
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (16-12) at Colorado Rockies (12-15) – Saturday, March 23rd at 8:40 CT on MLB Network, audio on MLB.com
Starting Pitchers
Rockies: Kyle Freeland (L)
versus
Cubs: Jon Lester (L)
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Javy Baez, SS
- Willson Contreras, C
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Jason Heyward, LF
- Jon Lester, P
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
Colorado Rockies Lineup:
- Charlie Blackmon, RF
- Daniel Murphy, 1B
- Nolan Arenado, 3B
- Trevor Story, SS
- Ian Desmond, CF
- David Dahl, LD
- Ryan McMahon, 2B
- Chris Iannetta, C
- Kyle Freeland, P