That’s the offer Max Scherzer recently turned down from the Detroit Tigers, according to FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi.
Lester, who, like Scherzer, is slated to become a free agent after the 2014 season, didn’t want to speculate on the Tigers ace’s decision when asked about it Wednesday, but he admitted the offer would look pretty tasty if slapped in front of him.
“That stuff is hard to comment on because you don’t know,” Lester told reporters Wednesday in Fort Myers, Fla. “I’m not him. I don’t ever want to talk bad upon anybody. That’s his decision. If he comes in and he takes six years for $40 million, that’s his decision. I’m not going to bad mouth anybody. They have their own beliefs, their own mindset, their own representation, and so I mean personally, if that’s me, that’s hard to walk away from. That’s hard to walk away from.
“I’m saying in that situation, I think everyone is different,” Lester added. “Everybody has different goals, different mindsets, different representation. They’re telling him one thing, and like I said, I can’t comment on it because I don’t have it sitting in front of me. If it was sitting in front of me, we could talk. It would be tough. Let’s put it that way. It would be tough.”
There’s been no indication the Red Sox plan to extend such an offer, and the left-hander didn’t share any specifics Wednesday when asked about the state of his contract negotiations. Lester said he is optimistic that talks between the Red Sox and his agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, are going well, though, and the 30-year-old hurler is open to continuing discussions into the regular season if the sides near a deal in the coming days.
“The dialogue has gone well,” Lester said. “The biggest thing is they’re still talking. We know how some of these things go, where guys blow up on each other and things get ended pretty quickly.”
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