By now you’ve heard about Jon Lester’s struggles throwing the ball to first base on pickoff attempts. Every time the Chicago Cubs are on a national broadcast, they talk about it.
We’ve seen him make some pretty ridiculous throws over with runners taking big leads. But we’ve also seen him actually pick a runner off.
Lester had another bad throw over to first base in a recent Spring Training Game vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks just the other day:
Jon Lester's throws to first base are actually in mid-season form already. ? pic.twitter.com/Y4fmT2izXy
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) March 4, 2018
The Cubs are working with Lester, trying to find a solution and they might have one. According to reports, Lester is working on a bounce pass-like throw over to first base. Something that would bring Chicago fans back to the days of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, per Lester.
Here’s what the lefty said via the MLB Insider Bruce LeVine:
Jon Lester on throwing error to first base . "We are working on the Pippen To Jordan bounce pass" Lester and fielding instructor Brian Butterfield are working online hop throw to first to combat throwing issues.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) March 4, 2018
Yes, that is not something we made up.
Could a bounce pass-like throw work? Maybe. If Lester can get that down and show runners he can pick them off, they will stop taking big leads. It’s a big if though because at this point, we aren’t sure if this will actually work.
I guess we will just have to wait and see.