Lester speaks on Bogaerts and Devers contract situations

Red Sox

Lester speaks on Bogaerts and Devers contract situations

Jon Lester is all too familiar with the harsh business side of Major League Baseball.

The former Boston Red Sox southpaw left the organization in free agency after the 2014 season, joining the Chicago Cubs on a six-year contract worth $155 million. Boston low-balled Lester with a four-year, $70 million offer before the ’14 campaign and traded him to the Oakland Athletics that summer, effectively ending his nine-year tenure with the club.

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Nearly a decade later, the Red Sox find themselves in a similar situation with two franchise cornerstones: Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers. Bogaerts is expected to opt out of his contract at the end of this season and become an free agent, while Devers is scheduled to hit the open market after the 2023 season. Neither player appears close to signing an extension with the team.

Lester shared his take on the situation in a conversation with NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran on Early Edition.

“I think the hardest thing for any player to understand is the business,” Lester told Curran from the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe. “Especially those two guys. Those two guys are lifelong Red Sox guys. I know Bogey obviously pretty well from playing with him in ’13 and ’14 and you guys know, you’ve watched him for forever long, super talented. I’ve gotten to watch Devers from afar.

“But the big thing is, man, is you’ve got to realize it’s a business, it’s not personal. And that’s really hard to do. You’re trying to think with your brain and not your heart and that’s a difficult thing to do sometimes, to separate, ‘Well I’ve given so much to this organization, so much to this team,’ and this is the business side of it that you’ve got to try to understand.”

It’s a business for them and they’re trying to spend the money the way they feel fit. Sometimes the fans agree with it, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s the hard part about the game of baseball.

Jon Lester on Bogaerts/Devers contract situations

Both Bogaerts and Devers have had to tune out the contract talk this season. Curran asked Lester if the outside noise about his uncertain future ever affected his performance.

“No. I mean, like I said, I understood,” Lester said. “Don’t get me wrong, us not getting a deal done in spring training kind of hurt. It did. But like I said, I understood the business side and then it just becomes, ‘OK, I have to go and pitch. And whatever happens happens from there.’ Then you get to free agency and you kind of realize what’s out there and you start seeing different things, which you can end up back in Boston, you can end up back wherever. It just depends on how that process goes.

“But yeah man, I think the hard part is just realize it’s a business. It’s a business for them and they’re trying to spend the money the way they feel fit. Sometimes the fans agree with it, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s the hard part about the game of baseball. I hope those guys are lifers. They’re so talented, and to have a shortstop/third baseman like that and have them locked up for a long time and be lifers for that organization I think would be huge for the Red Sox.”

Bogaerts is in the midst of his 10th season in Boston. The 29-year-old is slashing .314/.387/.459 with seven homers through 78 games.

Devers, 25, has a chance to start in his second All-Star Game this summer. He’s hitting .327/.383/.579 with 17 homers an MLB-leading 104 hits and 27 doubles in his sixth season.