The Boston Red Sox have parted ways with Jon Lester, but it seems like the left-handed ace might be thinking about a comeback in the offseason. After being dealt to the Oakland Athletics along with Jonny Gomes for Yoenis Cespedes, the former Red Sox pitcher started trending on Twitter. Many people wished Lester well in his new chapter in Oakland. However, out of all the tweets Lester got, he only “favorited” two of them. 
Interestingly, Lester later “un-favorited” the tweets from his teammate Brock Holt and ESPN/Grantland writer Bill Simmons after several media outlets found out about it. However, it’s definitely something that has crossed every Red Sox fan’s mind when the trade happened. Lester will be a free agent this winter and there’s a good chance that the Red Sox will go after him. Let’s speculate for a minute. Oakland will have a difficult time trying to retain him. They’re notoriously known for not going after big-name free agents. It’s clear they only got Lester because they have the best record in baseball and they’re putting all the chips in for a World Series run. Another option for Lester is pulling a LeBron James and returning home to his native Washington to play for the Seattle Mariners. This could be possible since A) he’s from there, B) the Mariners have shown some willingness to spend recently after they signed Robinson Cano. Lester might be exactly what they need to get over that hump and be a true contender. Then, of course, there are the New York Yankees. But one has to imagine that they’ve learned their lesson and don’t want to tie themselves up to anyone for long term after several failed big-name signings over the past decade. That leaves the Red Sox. They just cleared up a bunch of salary and will be big players in free agency. If Lester and the A’s don’t make a deep run in October, the memories of 2013 might still be fresh in the lefty’s mind and he may get a little “homesick” and choose to come back to Boston. It’s obvious Boston means a lot to him as evidenced by the body of work he showed for the Red Sox over all these years. The “favoriting” of those tweets also exemplifies Lester’s attachment to Boston. Lester’s also not stupid. He knows the Red Sox traded him to improve as a team and they did just that by acquiring Yoenis Cespedes. Every shrewd baseball fan knows that it was the Red Sox bats that failed them this year. Now, with Cespedes, the team has more pop going into next year. If the Sox look like a potential winner, this might draw Lester closer to the team. Not to mention they’ll still have David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Mike Napoli, newly acquired Allen Craig and young studs like Brock Holt, Jackie Bradley Jr., Mookie Betts and Christian Vasquez. The Red Sox are ready to make a run next year and Lester knows this. Everyone loves familiarity and the fact that the Red Sox have improved their offense over this year’s trading deadline (and could do so even more by acquiring Giancarlo Stanton or another bat in the winter) shows they’ll be contenders again. That has to be pretty appetizing for Lester.
