The announcement was made around 1am.
We got him! We got Lester! We got the best available free agent pitcher on the market. The Cubs. Seriously. Read the Boston Globe story about it. They sound genuinely mad at the Red Sox brass for not getting him. That's a good sign.
Now the numbers are slightly ridiculous (6 years, $155 million--which comes out to over $25 million a year), but the market is slightly ridiculous these days. You gotta do, what you gotta do. It sounds like they are also about to sign David Ross, Lester's personal catcher in Boston.
Getting very excited.
MORE UPDATES BELOW
*It sounds like the Cubs realization of how important his charity work is to him, is one of the reasons Lester chose the Cubs. That's good karma.
*Even the always cranky Steve Rosenbloom, who never says anything nice about the Cubs, has a rosy take on the signing of Lester.
*The Giants actually offered more years and more money...and he still picked the Cubs.
*Boston folks are having fun doing a Lester smear campaign on Twitter. Check it out here. Pretty funny.
