Pablo to Red Sox not quite done, but Giants are checking in on Jon Lester

According to Bobby Evans (on KNBR), the Giants still think they're in the Pablo Sandoval sweepstakes, with Sandoval's agent vehemently denying all of the rumors that a deal is done. Then a photo started circulating of Pablo on a plane to Boston. By "photo" I mean "hilariously ambiguous photo." Why take a picture of his face when you can take a picture of the top of his head?

He's probably gone, though. I don't know what this last-second subterfuge is all about, but every indication is that Sandoval is a Red Sock. I'm moving on. I went to the fifth stage of Pablo grief in July, so the World Series and the extra money are just gravy. That's an expression, not a fat joke, and you are awful. The good news is that we have a hint as to where the extra money might go. From Ken Rosenthal:

To add on previous tweet about #SFGiants’ potential pursuit of Lester: Club indeed has shown interest, according to a source.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 24, 2014

Seven years, $126 million. The last time the Giants did that with an A's left-hander, they won two championships. "The definition of insanity is not trying the same rad things over and over again when they work." -- Albert Einstein, probably.

While Sandoval at $100 million made a fair amount of sense for a Giants team that was devoid of young hitters ready for a promotion, they have a surprisingly deep lineup when healthy. Posey, Pence, Belt is a nice head start on a middle of the order, and even if you assume that Joe Panik isn't exactly a .330 hitter just yet and that Angel Pagan will never appear in more than 80 games in a season again, it's a lineup that needs duct tape instead of steel rebar.

The rotation, though, is something of a mess. Lester scares me a lot less than Scherzer, so if there's a chance for the Giants to sign him instead of Sandoval, well, go for it. I probably should have written about this choice before the Sandoval news so it doesn't seem like sour grapes. I'll write that I prefer Lester about a million times more than Yasmany Tomas at this point. He makes more sense for 2015 Giants, though not so much for the 2020 Giants.

Sandoval is almost certainly going to the Red Sox. The Giants have money to spend. Here's a rumor that makes sense. This is probably the last rumor of the offseason, give or take several thousand.