SAN DIEGO — Like Tom Petty says: The waiting is the hardest part.

And the Red Sox continue to wait for Jon Lester to make his decision on which team he will pitch for next season and beyond.

“We respect that he’s got a decision that’s going to be made and we assume that that will be sometime soon,” Cherington said from as Day 1 of baseball’s winter meetings wrapped up in San Diego. “We’ve been involved and had a chance to talk to him at length on numerous occasions. Sounds like he’s getting closer to a decision but aside from that I don’t know anything other than that.”


Contrary to an earlier report stating that the Red Sox were out of the bidding for the prized southpaw starter, the Boston brass insists they’re still in the running to get Lester back in a Sox uniform when all is said and done.

“I haven’t been told we’re out,” Cherington said. “So I assume we’re not out.”

Multiple reports indicate that Lester will make his decision by Tuesday. The Cubs, Giants, and Dodgers have been mentioned as the finalists in contention with the Red Sox to sign Lester to a long-term deal which is expected to be in the $140-150 million range over six years according to reports.

Regardless of the outcome, Cherington says the plan is to build a competitive rotation for 2015 one way or another.

“We’ve never looked at it like Plan A, B, C, we’ve looked at it like we need to build a rotation so we have to be in on all sorts of stuff and we have been in on all sorts of stuff all offseason,” Cherington said. “To this point in the offseason, there’s probably — between free agent possibilities and trade possibilities — 15-20 starting pitching scenarios we’ve talked about and worked on and so obviously not all those are going to land and more of those won’t land than will land, so we just have to stay involved and keep working.”


Cherington said he was sure he would talk to the Levinsons — Lester’s agents — again, but nothing was currently planned. The Sox GM also confirmed that they’ve had to adjust their position, i.e. offer, since spring training when they presented the lefty ace with a four-year, $70 million contract extension which was rejected by Lester’s camp.

“He had a very good season,”Cherington admitted. “He was healthy at the end of the season and he’s in free agency. Circumstances can change which might lead you to change your position even in the context of an offseason.”

Cherington also confirmed a report that Red Sox owner John Henry flew to Atlanta to meet with Lester over the weekend.

“There was a report that there was a meeting with John Henry,” Cherington said. “We’d like to be able to do some of these things without that kind of thing getting out but that got out. We’ve had opportunity we’ve needed to meet with Jon and meet with Seth [Levinson] and give them all the information we can give them.”

Sox manager John Farrell also remains confident that Lester will be in a Boston uniform when the team reports to Fort Myers, Fla., in February.

“I think we’re still confident that we can sign Jon,” Farrell said. “He’s obviously going through this free agency process. And as we came into this offseason there were a couple of spots in the rotation that we needed to address and add to. And we’re in the midst of that right now… We’re still optimistic that he’ll be in a Red Sox uniform. There’s a lot of history between the Red Sox and Jon. We obviously have a strong desire to bring him back. And yet hopefully this is coming to a little bit of a head here.”


Farrell believes Boston has a lot to offer Lester, and it’s not all about the money.

“We have the utmost trust in Ben and the resources that John [Henry], Tom [Werner] and Larry [Lucchino] provide,” Farrell said. “We feel like we’ve got a tremendous amount to offer to him. And that’s not just in terms of finances. That’s the ability to win and compete every year, and to play in a great place and in front of great fans in Boston. There’s a lot here that give us that optimism with Jon.”

In the meantime, the waiting game continues in San Diego. Stay tuned.