38-year-old Jon Lester has announced his retirement to cap off a legendary 16-year MLB career that saw him win three World Series and 200 games.
The veteran explained to ESPN's Jesse Rogers why he's hanging up the cleats:
“It's kind of run its course,” Lester said. “It's getting harder for me physically. The little things that come up throughout the year turned into bigger things that hinder your performance.
“I'd like to think I'm a halfway decent self-evaluator. I don't want someone else telling me I can't do this anymore. I want to be able to hand my jersey over and say, ‘Thank you, it's been fun.' That's probably the biggest deciding factor.”
Jon Lester spent the bulk of his MLB career with the Boston Red Sox after coming into the league in 2006, which is when he was also diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma. He won 110 games over nine years with the Red Sox and won two World Series in 2007 and 2013.
After a brief stint with the Oakland Athletics, Lester signed on with the Chicago Cubs for the 2015 season. In 2016, he had arguably the best season of his career, going 19-5 with a 2.44 ERA to help lead the Cubs to their first World Series win since 1908. He shared MVP honors in the NLCS that season with Javier Baez.
Lester pitched in Chicago through the 2020 season and then split 2021 between the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals after undergoing surgery to remove his thyroid gland. After struggling to finish his Cubs career and then again in 2021, the lefty knew it was time to call it quits in MLB.
Lester finishes his career with a record of 200-117 with a 3.66 ERA. He earned five All-Star appearances and racked up 2,488 strikeouts. His postseason resume is outstanding, with a 2.51 ERA over 154 innings pitched. Winning World Series with both the Red Sox and Cubs is certainly quite the feat
Pour one out for Big Jon Lester.
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