Jon Lester

Jon Lester

40-Year-Old PitcherP
 Free Agent  
2024 Fantasy Outlook
There was no outlook written for Jon Lester in 2024. Check out the latest news below for more on his current fantasy value.
RANKS
Rest of Season
From Preseason
$Signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Nationals in January of 2021. Traded to the Cardinals in July of 2021.
Brings end to career
PFree Agent  
January 12, 2022
Lester announced his retirement from professional baseball Wednesday, Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com reports.
ANALYSIS
Lester, 38, ends his prolific 16-year MLB career with a 200-117 record, 3.66 ERA and 2,488 strikeouts over 2,740 innings between the Red Sox, Athletics, Cubs, Cardinals and Nationals. He picked up five All-Star nods along the way and was a key rotation piece for World Series-winning teams in Boston (2007 and 2013) and Chicago (2016) while churning out a career 2.51 ERA in the postseason.
Read More News
Pitching Stats
Loading Pitching Stats...
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2021 MLB Game Log
calculator icon
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Sorare
Loading Pitching Game Log...
2020 MLB Game Log
calculator icon
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Sorare
Loading Pitching Game Log...
2019 MLB Game Log
calculator icon
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Sorare
Loading Pitching Game Log...
2018 MLB Game Log
calculator icon
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Sorare
Loading Pitching Game Log...
2017 MLB Game Log
calculator icon
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Sorare
Loading Pitching Game Log...
Minor League Game Log
calculator icon
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Loading Minor League Pitching Game Log...
Advanced Pitching Stats
Loading Advanced Pitching Stats...
Defensive Stats
Loading MLB Defensive Stats...
Stats Vs Today's Lineup
Want more matchup stats?
Loading Matchup Stats...
Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Jon Lester See More
MLB: Jeff Zimmerman on Starter/Reliever Splits
October 29, 2021
Jeff Zimmerman discusses why it's important to look at starter/reliever splits and identifies the 65 players who started five games and relieved in five others in 2021.
DraftKings MLB: Saturday Breakdown
October 2, 2021
Christopher Olson likes Michael Brantley as a nice value play against Paul Blackburn and the A's.
FanDuel MLB: Saturday Targets
October 2, 2021
Chris Bennett likes Byron Buxton against the Royals Saturday night, as he’s hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games, collecting 18 hits in that span.
Weekly Pitcher Rankings: Saving the Best For Last
September 25, 2021
Todd Zola ranks the starting pitching for the final weekend of the season, as Zack Wheeler has two more chances to embellish his Cy Young resume.
MLB FAAB Factor: Waiver Pickups of the Week
September 23, 2021
Jason Shebilske looks at midweek free agents worthy of a pickup, including Detroit pitcher Michael Fulmer who has reclaimed ninth-inning duties for the Tigers.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
Father Time has mostly caught up to Lester. The veteran lefty turned in a career-worst 5.16 ERA across 61 innings during the condensed 2020 season, which mirrored his 5.13 FIP. You could maybe chalk that up to a small sample size, but Lester also showed signs of decline in 2019, when he posted a 4.46 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. He's lost zip on his fastball in each of the last four seasons and his strikeout rate has come down as well, with his 6.20 K/9 in 2020 representing a new career low. Lester was never the most overpowering pitcher, even in his prime, but now his margin for error has essentially vanished, making him prone to ugly outings. He found a nice landing spot with the Nationals (one-year, $5 million) for his age-37 season. Lester could have some streaming appeal at times, but is more of an NL-only option at this stage.
On May 12, Lester was sporting a 1.16 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. However, it didn't take a Sabermetrics Ph.D. to know dark days lie ahead. Not only were Lester's 90.2% left-on-base rate, 3.62 xFIP and 3.91 SIERA harbingers, his modest 8.3% swinging-strike rate was way out of whack with a near-dominant 24.7% strikeout clip. Sure enough, the regression monster visited the North Side, ballooning Lester's ratios to 5.41 and 1.61 over his final 133 innings. To be fair, it was more than regression; the veteran lefty was also a victim of bad luck with a .360 BABIP and 67.5% left-on-base mark. His swinging strike rate edged up to 9.2% but Lester's strikeout rate predictably dropped to 20.8%. Another red flag is a drop in fastball velocity to its lowest level since 2007. Entering his age-36 season with a ton of mileage on his left wing, Lester is fantasy filler, best utilized in a streaming capacity.
Lester outpitched his peripherals by a huge margin in 2018, leaving what looks like a wide range of possible outcomes this upcoming season. All three of Lester's FIP, xFIP and SIERA were over a full run higher than his 3.32 ERA. The lefty's strikeout and walk rates went in the wrong direction, with his K-BB% falling from 15.7% to just 11.2%. That was the 17th-worst mark among 78 pitchers with at least 150 innings. Meanwhile he continued to allow home runs at an above-average rate as his groundball rate fell dramatically, from 46.2% to 37.7%. His 8.5% swinging-strike rate was a five-year low. Part of the reason for Lester outpitching the estimators was the Cubs' stellar defense, but another part of it was luck. Lester has proven to be one of the most durable arms in baseball, surpassing 180 innings in 11 consecutive seasons, but at 35 years old, his days of frontline-quality performance are fading fast.
Lester validated his reputation as one of baseball’s more durable arms by making 32 starts for the fourth consecutive season in 2017, but he was one of several Cubs to experience a World Series hangover. After submitting no worse than a 3.34 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over the previous three seasons, Lester saw those marks jump to 4.33 and 1.32, respectively, representing his worst showings since 2012. Lester wasn’t a victim of bad luck either, as his walk and home-run rates climbed while he lost a tick of velocity on his fastball and cutter, his primary pitches. Now 34 years old and with no injury cited as the reason behind his demise, Lester may need to get creative with his sequencing to mask his diminishing stuff and retain status as a viable top-of-the-rotation arm. Even if he’s unable to do that, Lester should remain a quality source of counting stats since the lost velocity didn’t prevent him from lifting his swinging-strike rate to 10.9%, the second-highest percentage of his career.
Lester's age-32 season was arguably the best of his 10 at the big league level as he spun career bests in ERA, WHIP, and batting average against (.209). Little changed with his skill set or his approach against opposing hitters, however, as he struck batters out nearly one-quarter of the time (24.8 percent) for the third straight season and kept his walk rate (6.5 percent) a tick below his career rate (7.8 percent). Despite his ongoing refusal to throw over to first base in order to keep baserunners honest, Lester stranded 84.9 percent of the baserunners who reached against him -- a big jump from the 71.8 percent he held in his first season with the Cubs, and a noticeable spike from his career 75.3 percent mark. There is little reason to expect a full repeat of 2016, but Lester should again have plenty of run support, a good defense around him, and a bullpen capable of protecting his leads this season. That's a profile worthy of a fantasy ace, but one drafted toward the bottom of the tier.
The Cubs shelled out big bucks for Lester last offseason and he earned his money with a strong performance in 2015 - except in the win-loss department. With just an 11-12 record atop the Cubs' rotation, Lester was a mild disappointment in leagues that count wins, but with 207 strikeouts, a 3.34 ERA and 1.12 WHIP, he was every bit the ace he was expected to be. That said, Jake Arrieta surpassed Lester with his brilliant second half in 2015, so don't be surprised to see 32-year-old lefty move down to second in the rotation. Lester's 4.4 K/BB last year nearly matched his career-high mark of 4.6 in 2014, but he had only topped 2.8 in that category once before this two-year run. One year is a fluke, but two years is a trend: this looks like the Lester you are going to get. Bid for an ace - he'll get you the wins in 2016.
The A's traded for Lester as part of their push to go all-in for a World Series title last season, but he let A's fans down in the AL Wild Card Game, allowing six runs in 7.1 innings and failing to hold a late four-run lead. After a terrible 2012 (4.83 ERA), Lester has dropped his ERA by more than a full run in consecutive season, putting up a 2.46 ERA in 2014. He got his strikeout rate back up to 9.0 K/9 after it had slipped into the 7.0-range in back-to-back seasons, and his durability continues to increase his value, as he's made at least 30 starts in every season since 2008. Lester became a free agent after his short stint in Oakland, and landed a six-year, $155 million deal in December to head up the Cubs' rotation.
Lester needed to re-establish his bonafides in Boston after the 2012 season when he went 9-14 and had career-lows (as a full-time starter) in ERA, WHIP and H/9. This, after his starring role in the September 2011 collapse. He's not the power pitcher he used to be, but Lester turned in a stellar season that culminated in a 4-1 record and 1.56 ERA over five postseason starts. At age 30, Lester is entering the final year of his current contract as Boston's No. 1 starter. He'll be pitching for the next big contract.
The hangover from 2011 that stayed with the team in 2012 also stayed with Lester, who had a career-high 4.82 ERA and experienced a drop in his strikeout rate for the second straight season. As hitters made more contact, Lester's batting line against and home runs allowed rose to career highs. He is still a workhorse, having thrown more than 200 innings in four of the last five years, and at age 29, time is still on his side. Like every struggling pitcher on Boston's staff, the hope is that the return of former pitching coach John Farrell (as the team's manager) will have a positive impact on Lester.
Lester had another strong season, his fourth straight, and at 28, he's entering his prime years. The left-hander suffered some control issues and saw his strikeout rate drop, but he had stretches of dominance, too. Along with Josh Beckett, Lester is at the top of Boston's rotation and pitches in front of a run-producing lineup. The X-factor entering the 2012 season is how he'll respond to the leaks about his clubhouse behavior that came out of Boston's late-season collapse. As a dogged competitor who never gives in, Lester should be driven to change perceptions.
Lester won a career-high 19 games, threw over 200 innings for the third straight season, and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting in 2010. His 9.7 K/9IP led the American League and he held opponents to a .220 batting average (fourth in AL). Other than a slight uptick in walks, Lester proffered another dominant season as Boston's de facto No. 1 starter. All signs point to another big season from him at age 27 as he continues to be the most consistent of the Red Sox's starting pitchers.
Lester, 26, posted his second consecutive strong season after beating cancer, throwing over 200 innings in 2008 and 2009. Of particular note, Lester improved his strikeout rate from 6.5 K/9IP to 10.0 K/9IP last season. That translates to 73 more punchouts in seven less innings. He's been Boston's most consistent starter during his recent run. The walks, the bugaboo early in his career, are dropping and Lester's clearly becoming one of the better pitchers in the AL.
Lester became Boston's ace in 2008 and was the team's most consistent pitcher from April to October. What changed for Lester is that he began throwing more first-pitch strikes while walking relatively fewer batters. He appeared to be getting stronger as the season wore on, even while pitching 129 innings more than his previous career high. Lester established himself as one of the game's best starters during the second half of the season and will be part of a fine threesome along with Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Beckett may be the nominal No. 1 starter and Matsuzaka may have had more wins, but Lester was clearly the best on the staff.
Lester, MLB's winner of the Tony Conigliaro award for overcoming adversity, was brought back slowly in 2007 after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He never really found a groove and continued to walk batters at a high rate. He's a fourth or fifth starter if he's still with Boston come April. Lester's name has been mentioned in trade talks with Minnesota. In either place, he'll be part of the starting rotation.
Lester is obviously a question mark entering the 2007 season in light of the lymphoma he was diagnosed with last September. He reports that he's cancer-free after treatment and is looking forward to spring training. Unfortunately, Boston has five set starters. He lived dangerously in his 15 starts in 2006, getting into trouble often via the walk. He's a cool customer on the mound, however, and often worked his way out of jams. He's a power pitcher with a low-to-mid 90s fastball, which is his out pitch. Of course, monitor him this spring to see how the illness has affected him.
When the Red Sox were negotiating the Josh Beckett deal, they told the Marlins that Lester was going nowhere. The team likes the athletic lefty, who has good movement on his low-to-mid-90s fastball, which he uses as his out pitch. He has an above-average change up, an 11-to-5 curve (low 70s) and worked on developing a cutter in 2005. He'll likely begin the 2006 season at Triple-A Pawtucket, where he can work to reduce his walks and continue to be a power strikeout pitcher. Lester is a hard worker and prepares well for each game.
Lester is still learning pitching mechanics and developing consistency, but the lefty is improving. Looking into his numbers, we see some good signs. He’s shown the ability to keep the ball in the park, and last season had a better K/9 ratio for Single-A Sarasota in the Florida State League. He should be moving up to Double-A, where we expect continued development.
More Fantasy News
Allows four runs in no-decision
PSt. Louis Cardinals  
October 2, 2021
Lester allowed four earned runs on six hits and four walks while striking out four across five innings in the loss to the Cubs on Saturday. He did not factor into the decision.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Escapes with no-decision
PSt. Louis Cardinals  
September 26, 2021
Lester didn't factor into the decision in Saturday's 8-5 win over the Cubs, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits and three walks over five innings. He struck out six.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Picks up 200th career win
PSt. Louis Cardinals  
September 21, 2021
Lester (7-6) allowed two runs on three hits while striking out two over six innings in a win over the Brewers on Monday.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Moved up in pitching schedule
PSt. Louis Cardinals  
September 20, 2021
Lester will start Monday's series opener against the Brewers in Milwaukee, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reports.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Picks up quality start
PSt. Louis Cardinals  
September 15, 2021
Lester (6-6) allowed two earned runs on six hits and no walks with seven strikeouts over six innings, picking up the win in Wednesday's 11-4 victory over the Mets.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Latest Fantasy Rumors
Could start in playoffs
PSt. Louis Cardinals  
September 16, 2021
Lester has pitched well over his last five starts and could be making a case to earn a spot in a playoff rotation if the Cardinals make it into the field.
ANALYSIS
Over those last five outings, Lester has a 2.12 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and a 2-0 record. The veteran lefty is clearly playoff-tested, and while the Cardinals are no lock to make the field, Lester may find himself working right behind Adam Wainwright in a potential postseason rotation. At the very least, Lester should be counted on to start some key regular season games down the stretch as St. Louis battles for a playoff spot.
See All MLB Rumors