Major League Baseball

Max Scherzer vs. Jon Lester: Who's the better buy?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:48 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

In case you needed further confirmation that Major League Baseball is awash in cash -- and that precious few top starting pitchers actually hit the free-agent market -- look no further than the whopping new contracts signed by Jon Lester and Max Scherzer. 

Lester received a six-year, $155 million deal from the Cubs to render curses, goats, and century-old World Series droughts as irrelevant on the North Side of Chicago (as he did in Boston). Scherzer, meanwhile, takes his strikeout stuff to Washington, landing a seven-year, $210 million contract (paid out over 14 years) to join the Nationals' super rotation and quash any rival's hopes of claiming the NL East in 2015. 

Which guy will earn his new nine-figure pay day? The answer could be neither, as history is teeming with once-reliable aces who break down in their 30s. But if I had a spare $200 million to wager, my money would be on Scherzer.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball