Players · L · Pitcher · 2021 regular season

Jon Lester

Washington Nationals National League East

Age: 37
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 249 lb
Number: #34

Born: January 7, 1984 in Tacoma, WA, United States
MLB debut: June 10, 2006

Compare with…vs Clayton Kershaw vs Justin Verlander vs Max Scherzer

dbWAR: 45.1
IP: 141.1
ERA: 4.71
FIP: 5.41
K/9: 5.8
FIP−: 127

Jon Lester was a starting pitcher for the Washington Nationals. In 2021 he struck out 91 batters over 141.1 innings across 28 appearances, 28 of them starts, going 7-6. His ERA of 4.71 was 10.5% higher than the league average of 4.27 — 14th of 23 on his team, and 369th of 567 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.41 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 20.1% of swings (9.3% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.8% of the batters he faced and struck out 14.5%. His -0.2 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2021 regular season.

FIP5.41

K/95.8

WHIP1.51

WAR-.2

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.


2021	WSH/STL	28	28	141.1	7	6	159	74	91	55	4.71	5.41	1.51	5.8	3.5	110	127	-0.2
2020	CHC	12	12	61.0	3	3	64	35	42	17	5.16	5.14	1.33	6.2	2.5	116	115	0.3
2019	CHC	31	31	171.2	13	10	205	85	165	52	4.46	4.26	1.50	8.7	2.7	99	94	2.5
2018	CHC	32	32	181.2	18	6	174	67	149	64	3.32	4.39	1.31	7.4	3.2	80	106	1.8
2017	CHC	32	32	180.2	13	8	179	87	180	60	4.33	4.10	1.32	9.0	3.0	99	94	2.9
2016	CHC	32	32	202.2	19	5	154	55	197	52	2.44	3.41	1.02	8.7	2.3	58	81	4.1
2015	CHC	32	32	205.0	11	12	183	76	207	47	3.34	2.92	1.12	9.1	2.1	84	74	4.9
2014	BOS/OAK	32	32	219.2	16	11	194	60	220	48	2.46	2.80	1.10	9.0	2.0	66	75	5.2
2013	BOS	33	33	213.1	15	8	209	89	177	67	3.75	3.59	1.29	7.5	2.8	97	93	3.1
2012	BOS	33	33	205.1	9	14	216	110	166	68	4.82	4.11	1.38	7.3	3.0	120	102	2.4
2011	BOS	31	31	191.2	15	9	166	74	182	75	3.47	3.83	1.26	8.5	3.5	88	97	2.7
2010	BOS	32	32	208.0	19	9	167	75	225	83	3.25	3.13	1.20	9.7	3.6	80	77	4.8
2009	BOS	32	32	203.1	15	8	186	77	225	64	3.41	3.15	1.23	10.0	2.8	79	73	5.2
2008	BOS	33	33	210.1	16	6	202	75	152	66	3.21	3.64	1.27	6.5	2.8	74	84	4.2
2007	BOS	12	11	63.0	4	0	61	32	50	31	4.57	5.24	1.46	7.1	4.4	102	117	0.3
2006	BOS	15	15	81.1	7	2	91	43	60	43	4.76	4.56	1.65	6.6	4.8	105	101	0.9

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.


2021	WSH/STL	27	51	8	1	3	0	2	24	.167	.200	.271	.104	.304	3.9%	47.1%	.206	-4.7	24	0.3
2019	CHC	28	53	9	1	6	0	5	20	.188	.264	.292	.104	.296	9.4%	37.7%	.249	-3.4	51	0.4
2018	CHC	31	65	7	1	9	0	0	22	.119	.119	.169	.051	.167	0.0%	33.8%	.124	-10.2	-34	-0.1
2017	CHC	28	65	8	1	6	1	4	26	.148	.203	.259	.111	.250	6.2%	40.0%	.206	-6.4	18	0.4
2016	CHC	30	75	6	0	6	0	6	18	.102	.185	.153	.051	.146	8.0%	24.0%	.163	-9.5	-7	-0.0
2015	CHC	29	71	4	0	0	0	3	30	.065	.108	.065	.000	.125	4.2%	42.3%	.087	-12.9	-63	-0.4
2014	BOS/OAK	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	60.0%	.000	-1.2	-121	-0.1
2013	BOS	2	7	0	0	0	0	0	4	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	57.1%	.000	-1.7	-124	-0.1
2012	BOS	2	6	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	50.0%	.000	-1.5	-112	-0.1
2011	BOS	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	60.0%	.000	-1.2	-115	-0.1
2010	BOS	2	6	0	0	1	0	1	2	.000	.200	.000	.000	.000	16.7%	33.3%	.144	-0.9	-25	-0.0
2009	BOS	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	40.0%	.000	-1.4	-123	-0.1
2008	BOS	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	40.0%	.000	-1.4	-125	-0.1
2006	BOS	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	75.0%	.000	-1.1	-124	-0.1

Separate from the regular season

Postseason Postseason

Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.

Postseason pitching

Postseason Jon Lester's postseason pitching, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	GS	IP	W	L	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	WHIP	K/9
2018 Post	CHC	Wild Card	1	1	6.0	0	0	4	1	0	1	9	1.50	0.83	13.5
2017 Post	CHC	Postseason total	3	2	14.1	0	0	6	3	1	8	7	1.88	0.98	4.4
		NLDS	2	1	9.2	0	0	3	2	1	3	5	1.86	0.62	4.7
		NLCS	1	1	4.2	0	0	3	1	0	5	2	1.93	1.71	3.9
2016 Post	CHC	Postseason total	6	5	35.2	3	1	27	8	3	6	30	2.02	0.93	7.6
		NLDS	1	1	8.0	1	0	5	0	0	0	5	0.00	0.63	5.6
		NLCS	2	2	13.0	1	0	9	2	1	2	9	1.38	0.85	6.2
		World Series	3	2	14.2	1	1	13	6	2	4	16	3.68	1.16	9.8
2015 Post	CHC	Postseason total	2	2	14.0	0	2	13	7	3	2	14	4.50	1.07	9.0
		NLDS	1	1	7.1	0	1	5	3	1	1	9	3.68	0.82	11.0
		NLCS	1	1	6.2	0	1	8	4	2	1	5	5.40	1.35	6.8
2014 Post	OAK	Wild Card	1	1	7.1	0	0	8	6	0	2	5	7.36	1.36	6.1
2013 Post	BOS	Postseason total	5	5	34.2	4	1	25	6	3	8	29	1.56	0.95	7.5
		ALDS	1	1	7.2	1	0	3	2	2	3	7	2.35	0.78	8.2
		ALCS	2	2	11.2	1	1	13	3	0	4	7	2.31	1.46	5.4
		World Series	2	2	15.1	2	0	9	1	1	1	15	0.59	0.65	8.8
2009 Post	BOS	ALDS	1	1	6.0	0	1	4	3	1	4	5	4.50	1.33	7.5
2008 Post	BOS	Postseason total	4	4	26.2	1	2	24	7	3	5	26	2.36	1.09	8.8
		ALDS	2	2	14.0	1	0	10	0	0	3	11	0.00	0.93	7.1
		ALCS	2	2	12.2	0	2	14	7	3	2	15	4.97	1.26	10.7
2007 Post	BOS	Postseason total	3	1	9.1	1	0	6	2	1	4	8	1.93	1.07	7.7
		ALCS	2	0	3.2	0	0	3	2	1	1	5	4.91	1.09	12.3
		World Series	1	1	5.2	1	0	3	0	0	3	3	0.00	1.06	4.8
Career		Postseason total · 9 Octobers	26	22	154.0	9	7	117	43	15	40	133	2.51	1.02	7.8

Postseason batting

Postseason Jon Lester's postseason batting, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	PA	AB	H	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2018 Post	CHC	Wild Card	1	1	1	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
2017 Post	CHC	Postseason total	3	5	4	1	0	2	.250	.250	.250	.500
		NLDS	2	3	2	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	2	1	0	1	.500	.500	.500	1.000
2016 Post	CHC	Postseason total	4	9	7	0	2	4	.000	.222	.000	.222
		NLDS	1	2	2	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	2	5	3	0	2	0	.000	.400	.000	.400
		World Series	1	2	2	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
2015 Post	CHC	Postseason total	2	4	4	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLDS	1	2	2	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	2	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
2013 Post	BOS	World Series	1	3	3	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
2007 Post	BOS	World Series	1	2	2	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
Career		Postseason total · 6 Octobers	12	24	21	1	2	11	.048	.130	.048	.178

Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	131	118	29	3	7	19	.246	.287	.373	.282	14.5%
vs RHB	496	440	130	22	48	72	.295	.366	.507	.373	14.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 25 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2021.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Pitch sequencing

What Jon Lester throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamCutterChangeupSinkerCurveball

Select a count to see exactly what Jon Lester throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	31.1%	741	88.7	2,172	45.6%	16.6%	151	.338	.966
Cutter	25.5%	608	86.4	2,304	42.6%	16.7%	140	.293	.896
Changeup	18.2%	432	81.3	1,737	36.3%	28.0%	110	.209	.579
Sinker	16.7%	398	87.6	2,041	35.4%	14.6%	118	.297	.837
Curveball	8.4%	201	72.6	2,437	39.8%	35.3%	39	.231	.692

Jon Lester's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

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Similar players

Nearest 2021 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Dallas KeuchelCWS

ERA: 5.28
FIP: 5.23
SO: 95
WAR: 0.2

Very close

Vladimir GutierrezCIN

ERA: 4.74
FIP: 5.22
SO: 88
WAR: 0.4

Very close

Daniel CastanoMIA

ERA: 4.87
FIP: 5.14
SO: 13
WAR: 0.0

Very close

Bryse WilsonPIT

ERA: 5.35
FIP: 5.49
SO: 46
WAR: -0.1

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.