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Anthony Rizzo's pitch to Jon Lester: 'We're a very exciting team'

Jerry Lai / USA TODAY Sports

Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo hasn't had the opportunity to speak to free-agent pitcher Jon Lester yet, but he knows exactly what he'd say to the left-hander if given the opportunity.

"The best sales pitch I have is that we're a very exciting team," Rizzo told the Chicago Sun-Times. "And this is Chicago."

Lester visited the Windy City on Tuesday before heading to Atlanta for talks with the Braves on Thursday. The 30-year-old has ties with Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer from their time together in Boston.

Rizzo believes newly-acquired manager Joe Maddon gives the team another concrete selling point to lure free agents.

"I can't wait to start working with him," Rizzo added. "Just speaking with him, everything he says is so on-point with the way I view the game of baseball as well. It's exciting."

Rizzo is also confident, however, in the group already assembled in Chicago.

"If we bring the team back that we had last year, I'm confident we can win more baseball games than we did last year."

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