Cubs Decline Jon Lester’s 2021 Club Option

We knew this was coming all along, yet it still doesn’t feel great. The Cubs have formally declined the $25 million option on Jon Lester for the 2021 season and will have to pay him a $10 million buyout instead.

The lefty and the Cubs have expressed mutual interest in a return engagement, but the market will be really odd this winter and it’s impossible to predict the outcome.

Lester was everything we could’ve hoped for and then some. He helped bring home a world championship to the North Side of Chicago, forever making him a legend in the hearts of all Cubs fans.

We can always hope that somehow he finds his way back into a Cubs uniform again. But if not, it’s been one helluva ride.