The Oakland Athletics have acquired Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes from the Boston Red Sox for Yoenis Cespedes. Oakland is also sending a competitive balance draft pick to the Red Sox in the trade, and the Red Sox will be sending cash to Oakland.
Lester has been the talk of the trade rumors of late and a number of teams were reportedly interested in acquiring the Red Sox ace, including the Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Miami Marlins to name a few.
Oakland traded for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel earlier this month to join Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir.
Lester, 31, was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2002 and has spent his entire career in Boston. Lester is 10-7 record with a 2.52 ERA and 149 strikeouts over 143 innings pitched spread out over 21 starts in 2014. He was also named an All-Star for the third time in his career this year.
Gomes will return to Oakland. The 33-year-old veteran has played for five different teams in his career and is batting .234/.329/.354 for a .683 OPS with 32 RBI and six home runs this season and was an integral part of the Red Sox 2013 World Championship team.
The Red Sox have wanted to add a right- handed power bat to the line-up and Cespedes certainly qualifies.
Cespedes has hit 17 home runs and driven in 67 runs this season to go along with a .256/.303/.464 slash line for a .767 OPS. The 28-year-old was named to the All-Star team for the first time this season. He will become a free-agent after the 2015 season.
