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National left-handed Jon lester will be having surgery to have his thyroid gland removed on Friday, manager Dave Martinez announced today (link via Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). Assuming all goes well, the operation should only keep him out of action for about a week, the manager added.
Lester, 37, faced fatigue at the start of the camp. After some consultations with medical experts and a series of tests, he chose to have the operation this week in the hopes that it will prevent further symptoms during the 2021 season. He is traveling to New York today.
Lester signed a one-year, $ 5 million contract with the Nationals over the winter, setting the stage for him to slip into the rotation behind Max Scherzer, Stephen strasburg and Patrick corbin. The contract reunites him with Martinez, who was his bench coach in Chicago from 2015 to 2017, and with another free agent signing. Kyle schwarber.
In 2006, during his first year with the Red Sox, Lester was diagnosed with lymphoma and was out for almost a year while undergoing chemotherapy. Since his remission and return to the mound, he’s been among the most enduring starters in the game. The five-time All-Star made at least 31 starts per season over a 12-year span from 2008-19, averaging 199 innings. per season. Along the way, he also pitched 144 2/3 innings of the 2.55 ERA in the playoffs and won NLCS MVP honors in 2016. In last year’s shortened season, he started a dozen matches.
While Lester isn’t the ace he was in his prime, his status as one of the game’s most trusted innings sources makes him very appealing to a national club that needed a constant presence behind a top three established. Lester struggled to achieve a 5.16 ERA last summer, but he also posted his lowest walk percentage and highest ground ball rate since 2015. A clearer schedule for the southpaw will be known after the procedure, but the early projection that he could be back to work after just a week, obviously bodes well for Lester and the Nats.
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