Jon Lester rejected four-year offer from Boston Red Sox, contract negotiations over

JON LESTER ~ Rejected 4 year deal ?

RED SOX : BASEBALL 2014
April 13,2014.










c/o Rob Bradford
      WEEI.com

NEW YORK — According to a major league source, the Red Sox‘ most recent offer to Jon Lester was for an extension of four years, $70 million. FoxSports.com was first to report the offer, suggesting the money would be between $70-80 million.

Per the source, at this point there are no plans to rekindle talks regarding a new deal during the current season.

Lester is in the option year of what had been a five-year, $30 million deal. He is being paid $13 million for the 2014 season.

Here is what Lester had to say to reporters after the Red Sox‘ loss to the Yankees Saturday afternoon:

ON NOT TALKING DURING SEASON: “I don’t think that’s news. I think that’s something that was pretty well stated on both sides. We’re going to pause it for now. I took that as the season. I know how this stuff can be not only as an individual but as a team it can be a distraction, like this, questions, teammates getting questions. I feel like just wait and see, see where we’re at.”

SURPRISED OFFER BECAME PUBLIC?: “Not really. We all know that eventually things like this get out there. I knew that one day we’d probably be standing here doing this. That’s the nature of the beast, playing in a market like this. It’s hard to keep things under wraps. … Like I said, when things ended at the beginning of the season, no hard feelings. I think both sides walked away in good places. Like I said, we’ll pick it up when the time comes.”

HOPEFUL OF GETTING A DEAL DONE?: “We’re all hopeful, absolutely. Like I’ve stated before, I would like to think what they’ve said is true as well. I want to be here. They said they want me here. So just at that particular time, things didn’t really pan out, didn’t work out. When the time comes, we’ll sit down again and see where we’re at then.”