Jon Lester trade rumors: Could be headed to Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ pursuit of another starting pitcher to help out in the second half could lead them to make a deal with the Boston Red Sox. John Perrotto of Timesonline.com says the Pirates have “kicked around” the idea of pursuing Red Sox starter Jon Lester.

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Lester and the Red Sox thus far have been unable to work out a contract extension, so the Red Sox might have no choice but to make the pitcher available via trade. The 30-year-old left hander is 10-7 on the season with a 2.50 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 137 innings.

If not Lester, the Pirates could pursue A.J. Burnett or Ian Kennedy.

Lester would be a potentially high-impact move for the Pirates, who currently sit just 2 1/2 games out of first in the NL Central and are 2 out in the wild card race.

The addition of Lester might give Pittsburgh a legit chance to claim a second straight playoff berth in the National League. Clearly, they are looking around for pitching. All sorts of rumors are swirling around the Pirates as we near the deadline.

Burnett returning would be a decent move but Lester would be a huge game-changing deal. Could the Pirates really work something like that out?

And would the Red Sox really move Lester? The way he’s pitching this year, you’d think the Red Sox would want to lay out the money for the extension. Dominating left-handed starters are hard to come by. Here’s one thing I know: the Yankees would never let Lester get away.

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