(670 The Score) Veteran left-hander Jon Lester's departure from Chicago this offseason left a void in the Cubs' rotation, the organization's heart and … the clubhouse.
As in literally, Lester's prestigious locker was empty and available at Sloan Park, the Cubs' spring training complex in Arizona. At first, outfielder Ian Happ thought he had inherited Lester's locker, which he interpreted as a huge honor – until veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo had something to say about it. Rizzo pulled some strings and decided the locker – which has plenty of space around it and is away from other foot traffic – would be his.
"Well, he has all of the rank on me," Happ said on the Bernstein & Rahimi Show on Thursday morning. "He's the longest-tenured Cub. "He's the captain. So what happened was Jon has this locker and when I first got to camp in 2017, it was Lester on one side and (John) Lackey on the other. And then locker in the middle is basically shelves. It's an open-shelved locker, so these guys can put whatever they want – shoes, backpack, all this stuff in the shelves in the middle, which is the best. Now, I got a picture from Nico (Hoerner) when he first got to Arizona that had my nameplate next to the locker. So (Craig) Kimbrel would've been on one side and I would've been on the other.
"So I was like, 'Wow, that is a high compliment that they gave me that locker. I'm super excited about this.' Now, Riz has a locker right next to the bathroom. He's got a locker next to him that's completely open. He's on the corner, so he has some open storage there where he can put whatever. He wanted Jon's old locker basically as anything that Lester did is absolutely awesome. Like it's a sign of, I don't know, like maturity or veteran status to be able to have what he had. So Riz called up the clubhouse guys and said, 'Hey, I'm going to need that locker.' And so the next thing I know, Nico was sending me a picture and I was no longer there. I was like, 'All right, that's fine.' But Riz called me and he said we're right next to each other as we are in the Chicago locker room. So it's perfectly fine with me."
Happ called Rizzo's new locker "the most desirable" one in the Cubs' clubhouse at Sloan Park. He ranked shortstop Javier Baez's locker as arguably the second-best.
