Jon Heyman of SI.com says the Red Sox and free-agent RHP John Lackey have agreed to a five-year, $85 million deal.
Updated at 2:41 pm:
According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, “Lackey underwent a physical Monday with the Red Sox, an indication that he is close to an agreement with the team.”
Original Post at 11:56 am:
Ed Price of AOL FanHouse says free-agent RHP John Lackey is scheduled to take a physical for the Boston Red Sox, though he has yet to confirm this information.
…wow… if this is accurate, then it stands to reason the Red Sox are serious about moving on from free-agent OF Jason Bay, which would mean his fight could come down to the Mets, and whomever the mystery team is that offered five years… also, it would suggest the Red Sox will not be players for Blue Jays RHP Roy Halladay, who it seems is most likely to start next season either on the Blue Jays, Angels or Phillies… though, i have to wonder how lackey-to-the-sox will motivate the Yankees…
Why would they sign him with Beckett’s deal coming up? I think this is being floated by someone for a response.
could be as future leverage or talks with Beckett haven’t looked promising so Lackey would team-up with and then essentially replace Beckett next year
yup, overlap their deals and then let Beckett go while he is still a Type A but will be soon to decline. Like they did with Pedro.
Kiss Lackey goodbye. :(
Twitter is evil.
If they sign Lackey, maybe Bucholz + gets shipped to SD for Gonzalez…
I would bet that is exactly what happens, Lackey would most certainly make Bucholtz expendable. If they trade for Gonzo, they just got real good real fast!
ugh not good, hopefully this is wrong info like everything else ed price has twittered this off-season
at least this time Price mentions a source, and doesn’t label it purely as rumor
Seems to make sense on the heels of the the story about the Sox pulling out of the Bay negotiations.
Dang it. I’d bet if they do sign him they use their young pitching and trade to get their bat. I would look at M. Cabrera or Gonzales. The Tigers said they wanted major league talent if they were to trade Miggy and the Sox have it with Bucholtz and others.
I’m not a huge fan of Bay but we kinda need him now, unless Holliday’s price tag falls.
Can anyone say Josh Beckett next season?
That quick? We hear nothing about an offer or counteroffer, and this guy just signs with the Sox? Not sure if I believe this.
Physical doesn’t mean a signing, sounds like this would be preamble to a big offer though
I agree. Seems to me that no team would make an offer to Lackey without seeing his medical records and/or having the opportunity to perform a physical. You don’t want to unknowingly want to acquired damaged goods, like, say, Victor Zambrano…
As much as I would like to doubt this report, with atleast 2 sources reporting this, it’s likely it happened. And considering thae Angels and the Marininers have been fighting over Lackey for the last four days there is no way Lackey agrees to a physical therby taking a chance that He might fail and watch value plummet if the Red Sox don’t offer him a contract. If he’s taking a physical it’s a pretty safe bet that there is a deal in place already.
This whole market is off balanced. John Lackey is not someone I consider an ace or even a reliable #2 yet everyone is going nuts over the guy.
Why?
He is most definitely a reliable #2, I agree he is not an ace, but a strong #2 still has a good amount of value. I think the nubmers they are talking about are a little crazy, but mostly the length of the contracts not so much the per year amounts.
Lackey far outdoes the garbage that passes for #3 starters on most teams, and is among the better of #2 starters. If you have been watching baseball the last few years you know the quality of starting pitching is just abysmal. But what else can you compare him against? He is clearly a top 50 pitcher in the game right now.
ugh ugh ugh it seems confirmed
Guys, I highly doubt this report is accurate, for one I don’t think Ed Price has got anything right all winter! That said, if he hasn’t verified the information, why even put it out there? He is losing credibility fast! Seems to me that Boston would want the information out there, yet there hasn”t been any indication from the Sox that this is true.
Well, now Rosenthol is saying the same thing,…………this would be unreal if the Sox stayed under the radar this long and are able to pull it off.
Up yours, Omar. I always defend you, but you didn’t even make an offer beforethe best pitcher disappeared off the market. Now I have to listen to you tell me that Jason Marquis is what we needed and the Mets front office projected him as better. Boo….
How do you know they didn’t make an offer? you don’t, so take it easy.
I agree. We don’t really know. If the Sox got him, then I guess that is the reason for not going all out for Bay and now might trade some players to SD. I really hope Omar did offer him. But let us all wait and see, how Omar will respond.
Omar’s hands are tied by the Wilpons. They don’t want to spend money and want to save the 30 million that came off the books this year. Jeff Wilpon tried to sell us a load of Bull and I’m not buying.
Can we stop it with those accusations already? You don’t offer a 65 million dollar contract (taking a chance he might accept) and not mean it, Get real. Fact is if they don’t show the fans they mean business this offseason it’s likely they would lose more than the 35 million that was coming off the books,……think about that.
John Lackey is not worth $17 million for five-years. I’d rather wait for a better class of pitchers next year, or trade for one.
I’d agree 100% there is no way Lackey is worth 5 years period, end of story!
yep – Red Sox are going to regret that contract in the outyears. Lackey would have been better served signing with an NL club.
We still need a pitcher for this year, who is still out there on the market? I have a hard time keeping track, what about an injury risk guy?
we need someone more dependable first! They maybe
true, who is out there? Marquis maybe?
I gotta Believe Joel Pineiro will be the move.
SOunds a whole lot like Mr. Pineiro will get his 4 years @40 million, if not from the Mets from another team.
Thanks, for some reason I forgot about him, my mind is blank today
If they sign Pineiro for 3 or 4 years they probably will not go after another long term pitcher next year.
If not Lackey then someone on a 1 or 2 year deal, or a trade, makes more sense with next years pitching market.
All around bad news for us. Now that Rosenthal also confirmed this it makes it seem as if the Sox will try to strike a deal, move on from Bay and make a deal for a bat. Unfortunately, the Mets look like they’re preferring Bay over Holliday, which is a mistake. If Lackey’s off the market I really, really think the Mets need to strongly consider Holliday and Marquis, but at the very least Holliday.
Another thing. As much as I loved Delgado, I now fear that if the Mets don’t get a power bat they’ll sign Delgado, who is a huge injury risk, to justify as a power hitter and some mediocre starting pitcher. However, in that case, I’d rather they save their money and look at a stronger free agent market next year (Beckett, Webb, etc.)
Hear that??????? That is the sound of Scott Boras licking his chops!!! If Lackey goes to the Sox, suddenly Holiday looks more appealing than Bay to the Mets, or worse yet if Bay signs elsewhere, Boras will have Omar over a barrel and he will know it!,……….Can you say overpay,……..UGH!
I don’t agree with that. If Boston isn’t in the bidding for a LFer, and Bay signs elsewhere, most likely the next highest bidder…. who are the mets bidding against? Again Some moron GM might come on and overpay but it is the Mets market if Boston falls out of it. No other big market team is in on Bay or Holliday then.
Did you forget about the Angels and Mariners? Granted they can’t out bid us, but they can sure as heck add a good year or 2 and atleast 5 million dollars to Holiday’s pricetag.
I think they can add a little, Maybe making the Mets give an option year, and adding a tick more. But i wouldn’t go over board saying Overpaying. Overpaying would be 18 mil for 6 years for holliday, or 16 mil for 5 years for bay…. I don’t see either of those.
You just wait, if Lackey is truly off the Market Holiday could easily garner 6 years and 18 million from the Met’s,……possibly more if Bay signs elsewhere. They have to sign one off the big three and everyone in MLB knows it, including Scott Boras!
Holliday could easily get 6 years 18 million from someone. I hope its us because in all honesty I dont think thats too much for him. I think thats the limit. Anything more in years or annual salary like 7/140 would be absurd. He would only be 35 when the contract was up so he’d probably be productive the entire 6 years. Not sure I could say the same for bay.
disgusting. absolutely disgusting. We need a number 2 in the worst way and Minaya lets lakcey get away. you had the money to spend one big fa and LACKEY was the one that you needed to use it on. not holliday. not bay, but john lackey. get this moron out of the organization. as mets fans, we should riot at citifield.
you remember you said that when Lackey’s shoulder falls apart in 3 or 4 years. No way he is worth 5 years, not with his injury history!
Well lots of people feel he’s not justified for the contract he is going to recieve, i.e 5 years 85+ million. 2nd the mets 2nd biggest hole to fill was power hitting LFer which is still wide open…. Can’t start rioting yet, from the start of the offseason the mets have said Lackey isn’t the priority and have stuck to those guns.
Also they could still swoop in Yankee with Teixeria style and scoop him up if the feel necessary to do so.
yeah…. about that. THEO EPSTEIN thought he was worth it and that man is a baseball genius…. i dont care what people thought about the lackey deal, but i do care that epstein arguably the best gm in all of baseball thought he was worth it because he is. imo epstein is the best…..
Remember that next year’s FA pitcher market looks to be much better.
I’d like Lackey, but at reasonable cost (for reasonable years).
Absolutely!, would I have liked him? Sure, but not at a Burnett type contract.
now jason bay or matt holiday is a must for omar…..if we dont land one of them, and frankly i dont even care much which one it is, then omar has done a horrible job this offseason
Well you have to wonder did OMar do a bad job or did Theo Epstein do a really really good job, nobody in MLB saw the Lackey potential signing coming so soon,…..nobody so if it’s because somebody did a bad job then there are an awfull lot of GM’s that have some questions to answer, no just Omar! Omar will get one of the two, but I fear it will be a painfull price indeed, particularly oif Bay signs elsewhere!
agreed, im not saying that not getting lackey means that omar did a bad job…frankly i did not think lackey would sign before christmas so im suprised like everyone else……i will say omar did a bad job if he does not land a bigtime leftfielder now, whether it be the obvoius in bay/holliday or a more creative trade for crawford or quentin or whomever
I am not mad that we didn’t sign Lackey. I just hope Omar has a plan in general. He mentioned he had a lot of good conversations but what has come of it so far. I just don’t want to hear that he tried while we try to field a team during Spring Training.
This is a very important offseason for us as we need to have a plan. If not, I think we need to go after someone like Bean or Nolan Ryan, once he leaves the Rangers. I don’t think Omar has any real idea of what he is doing. He just signs a big free agent each year to placate fans while leaving holes.
Pitchers and catchers in 412 days, can’t wait!!!
shameful, but getting truer by the day….
the Soxx are watching the Spanks get better on offense, so they are countering with defense … they don’t like the prospect price for Halladay (and maybe his age and required contract) … so they are going with plan B — Lackey. not so surprising, considering thier position.
Pitching is a higher premium than positional players – much like QBs …
i would much rather pay our $$$$ for 2 good pitchers than the $$$$ for Holliday or Bay …. are either Holliday or Bay 5 tool players …. then, why does either deserve 15-18 MIL per year.
despite our lack of punch on offense, our biggest problem is that less Santana, how many of our pitchers can go past the 6th inning on a regular basis …. it burdens the pen, and adds pressure to the offense — we’ve watched it the last 3 years … when will we learn from it. we don’t need a better pen per se …. we need better, reliable SPs.
Well even tough I like the idea of back-loading, it won’t hapen. Lets’s get Sheets or Bedard as our #2 and Marquis or Pineiro as our #3.
well there u have it folks, Boston signed Lackey,……things just got alot more expensive from here on out!
Would have loved to have Lackey, but guys, there are still other pitchers that can do the job for us waiting on the unemployment line. Just think of 2006 and who we had in our rotation. Trachsel anyone? We don’t need SUPERSTARS to do it, just dependable arms that can keep us in games.
Unbelievable.
lets go all out on offense. holliday and gonzo. before everything falls apart!! please!!!
personally i think that is a great idea but it will never happen
hear that it’s Queen: Another one bites the dust………………..I knew it, Omar will blow this
I am glad the Mets did not make this deal. That is way too much commitment to a guy with arm injury history and is 32 years old.
Maybe We can sign Holliday…. Boston has too much pitching and DiceK could become available. Beckett, Lackey, Lester, Wakefield…. They still have Buchholz. I know I’m forgetting one.
Last week we heard that Dice K had “repaired the relationship” with Boston’s hierarchy… which could just be a way to tell teams he’s not a trouble maker.
So, I’d take Holliday and Dice K over Bay and Lackey.
Of course this is all being made up in my head, so it doesn’t matter!
Can we now at least sign Ardolis Chapman please!?
Hey, I like the idea, but it won’t happen.
At least we locked down Dessens! Phew!
Like that was a close one! LOL.
BTW, everybody, IMO, Lackey ISN’T worth 17mill per season. That is Holliday money who is a lot better IMO, but you can never compare a pitcher and a hitter.
Unfortunately, I believe 15-17 mil is becoming “front of the rotation starter money” when guys like Lowe and Ollie are getting 13-15.
based on today’s market, I believe a guy like Lackey is certainly worth what Boston is reported to have offered him. His health problems are gravely overstated. I mean, he’s a pitcher, he’s going to miss some innings. He was a must sign for me. This team needs a 1A or a 2 if they truly want to compete, especially in the playoffs
Quick aside – as I type playoffs above, I am fittingly reminded of this from Jim Mora – “Playoffs?! Don’t talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? Playoffs?! I’m just hoping we can win a game, another game!”
How is he a 1A? He has had one great season. He is a one time All-Star and has had CY votes in exactly one season.
He has missed 15 starts over the past two seasons, or roughly half a season.
This is more than a few innings.
5 straight seasons of 33 starts, followed by 24 and 27 starts. That’s certainly far from a few innings missed, but it’s further from “injury prone” as many like to suggest.
3.81 career ERA, with the last 5 seasons of sub 4 ERA ball. He has a respectable whip of 1.3, he doesn’t walk guys and is playoff tested.
He may not be the sexy name like Johan or Halladay, but i’d slate him behind my number 1 with confidence any day.
but the past two seasons are the ones with injuries. It is not like tehy were several years ago. Also, this 5 years of starting 33 G produced ERAs of 4.63, 4.64, 3.44, 3.56, and 3.01 and he averaged 6 IP per start. After that he was injured at the beginninig of the next two seasons and had ERAs of 3.75 and 3.83.
He is nowhere near a #1 and barely a #2 if he did not have the injuries. Signing him for 5 years isn’t a great idea.
BTW, last year his record agains teams that finished over .500 was:
6 Wins
7 Losses
5.04 ERA
1.49 WHIP
I want the Mets to go after Gonzo now
I dont think the Red Sox are going to go after him
I doubt they have the money to sign lackey resign Beckett and extend Gonzo if they were to get him
Why can’t they get Agon? He is only 5 mill!
And plus, I doubt they can resign Beckett which is why they can get Agon and the Mets can get Webb or Beckett next year.
If they dont resign beckkett then they cna get A-gon but if they do resign beckkett I doubt they get A-gon
Yea gonzo is 5 mill now but he will be about 20 mill soon
A-gon is 5min this year and 6 mil next year… then is a FA(most likely Type A) Dodgers can use that cheap production and then jus get 2 draft picks back by letting him walk…
Why did I say Dodgers… I meant Red Sox lmao
10 bucks says our number 2 turns out to be Aaron harang…I just have a feeling
Then we can get philips but first we have to trade Castillo which will not happen so nope!
Reminds me of last year when everyone was bemoaning the Mets for not signing Lowe. A year later, the Braves are looking to trade Lowe because it’s an awful contract. Lackey is not worth $85 millon for 5 years. The man has only made 51 starts the past two seasons. There are durability issues there.
Regardless of your opinion of Lackey there was no way he was signing with the Mets, or probably anyone else. The speed at which this happened leads me to believe he wanted to go to the Red Sox and if they met his price it was a done deal.
Im not going to cry over this, we can get similar production for a whole lot less.
Im more concerned with getting Holliday/Bay at this point.
I think the Mets should take a chance on chapman
Poor Omar. Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride.
Right. Except for landing Johan for peanuts. Oh, and luring Beltran aboard at a time when the team had less credibility than it does now. Wait, I seem to remember him signing the top closer in baseball last winter. And who did we give up for Delgado? Wasn’t one of them just released?
Sheesh, what a pity party.
How about signing Troy Glauss to play first, Molina to catch, Bay or Holliday in the OF, and sign Jason Marquis. Our staff of Santana, Marquis, Pelfrey, Maine, and Niese isn’t great but how many number 2s are out there for us to cherry pick from. This would give away some of our picks but none of our minor leaguers.
Thank god he’s off the market. 17mil/year over 5 years? injured to begin each of the last two seasons? Very Solid but not spectacular numbers? No thanks.
With this signing, I think Jason Bay will not be going back to Boston. Boston basically wasted alot of their money to sign John Lackey. This guy is injury prone and when he is healthly, he puts up some mediocore numbers. I think Jason Bay with this, may probaby accept the deal the Mets gave him. I don’t think anyone else is interested. We haven’t heard anything about the mystery team and their ties to Jason Bay, but i am sure the Mets will take full advantage of this decison by the Red Sox to sign Lackey and spend their money on Bay. I won’t be surprised if Jason Bay is in a Mets uniform come next spring.
Boston also just picked up Cameron, so I am guessing Bay is done being a Red Sock.