Be careful. The stove is hot.

You could get burned.

The Chicago Cubs may get burned with left-handed starting pitcher Jon Lester.

Sure, Lester is a good pitcher coming off his best overall season in the big leagues.

But he’s not great.

Great players should get $25 million a year. Not good ones.

The Cubs, desperate to be relevant again after years (and years and years) of being, well, the Cubbies, gave Lester $155 million over six seasons.

Lester is 116-67 in his career with a 3.58 ERA and has been stellar in the postseason.

The Cubs have to get to the postseason, though.

I see the lure for Lester.

He was in Boston when the Red Sox broke their like billion-year curse without a World Series title.

Multiply that by about a billion for the Cubs should they win it all.

Still, it’s a bad, bad deal.

There will be plenty of them to come this winter.

One deal that wasn’t bad, however, was the one the Pirates made for Francisco Liriano.

The Pirates “only” had to shell out $39 million over three years for their own lefty ace, who has put up some pretty similar numbers to Lester’s over the last two seasons.

If Liriano can stay healthy (and that is a big if), he could be every bit as good as Lester in 2015.

It appears now the Pirates are done spending big money and will make a series of minor moves to bolster the bullpen.

With every other team in the division being bold this offseason, perhaps that is a mistake.

Perhaps the Pirates should take a hammer to that piggybank they are protecting so much.

Here’s some guys the Pirates might think about chasing because their prices may be right:

Brett Anderson. I’m not sure if the 26-year-old lefty starting pitcher still actually has an arm because he has only made 13 starts the last two years.

The Bucs have been good at reclamation projects like this one. He may be worth the risk.

Justin Masterson. Flexibility is the key here. He has shown he can be an efficient starting pitcher — he was 14-10 with a 3.45 ERA with the Indians in 2013. He can also be a long reliever or a set-up guy.

Most importantly, he won’t come with a high price tag.

Mark Reynolds. Imagine a platoon with the free-swinging, mega-power, right-handed-hitting Reynolds with the free-swinging, mega-power, left-handed-hitting Pedro Alvarez at first base?

That would be my all-time favorite platoon because the two of them could combine for a .222 average, 40 home runs, 100 RBI and 300 strikeouts.

Spectators won’t need to fan themselves on those hot, summer days at PNC Park.

These two will prove quite the breeze with their swings and misses.

For that reason alone, this needs to happen.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.