Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald:
A major-league source said that the Red Sox met with free agent starter John Lackey’s agent at the GM meetings this week in Chicago. The Red Sox expressed preliminary interest in the right-handed starter, who is arguably the top free agent starter available this coming season. The Red Sox are still in the fact-gathering stage in their quest to beef up their starting rotation and are expected to stay in contact about Lackey in the coming weeks.
I’m actually pretty interested in Lackey. Assuming he settles for a four-year deal, he would provide great depth. I do have some concerns about this:
- Can Lackey hold up? He’s been beset by injuries recently.
- Will he be in a reasonable price range? If not, what’s the appeal to Boston to sign him to a bigger deal?
- What ramifications down the road of signing Lackey is there? Letting Beckett walk?
Loading ...
Yes i would like to have Lackey on my team. Trade Beckett for a bunch of prospects and use those prospects to get AGon.
Why would the Sox pay $100M for Lackey (31) and not wait to re-sign Beckett (29) – the guy with the far better postseason record?
I like Lackey, but not at the price/years he is expected to get…
80 mil isnt too much for the Sox. He wont get 100 mil
No one is giving up "a bunch of prospects" for one year of a second tier pitcher.
And San Diego isn't going to trade Adrian Gonzalez who's under a very reasonable contract, their only ticket draw.
Well the Orioles got a bunch of prospects by trading Beddard. Beckett > Beddard
No, I don't want Lackey. We need that money to sign Holliday.
I preffer to trade Papelbon, to land a couple of pieces to land A-Gon.
I'd pass. He's got a injury history on that elbow, he's going to want quite a bit of money and he's a hot head and bit of a selfish player. He'll lash out on players and coaches. No thanks.
My take, sign Lackey, he's definitely a guy you want on the staff. You can still re-sign Beckett. Then trade Buchholz as part of a larger package for Gonzalez. The Red Sox do have some money to spend this winter because they didn't sign Teixeira last year. I could definitely see them adding Lackey and I would like to see them sign Harden too
Yes. He is a bulldog out there. And would not cost prospects. For a 4 year deal, eh, that 4th year would scare me as they always do, but I love the guy and could give a rat's arse if he is a hot head. So is Beckett, Youk, Pedroia, Papelbon.
This team already has five starters. Beckett and Lester could be #1 starters on most teams, and Buchholz is only getting better. We don't need to dish out for another front line starter. We just need depth at this point. The money we would spend on Lackey would be better spent extending Beckett.
The only way I see it making sense to sign Lackey is if Buchholz gets traded for a position player and a rotation spot opens. But even then probably not.
Agree. IMO he is the least attractive of available pitching options. If it's $$, extend Beckett. If Beckett is going to walk, sign Halladay and extend him. Either way, pick up Harden/Bedard, etc., as insurance/depth. KEEP Buchholz. He's the biggest bargain on the team and could be huge. We have sufficient to go after AGon.
i agree with MAG why pay lackey a big contract,if your gonna do that you might as well go get roy halladay….halladay is a hell of alot better than lackey and i still think we need to do whatever we can to land adrian gonzalez no matter what the cost$$$$$.
Why would we assume Halladay becomes available? I'm not saying it's the wrong idea — I'm just saying that should be factored in.
why trade a bunch of prospects for a 31 year old. In the Sox world, prospects are more valuable than money, don't forget the Sox have a huge budget
Sure, if he wants to sign for a 4 year, $48 million contract, but he won't. I bet there's a team out there that will either give him much more for 4 years or probably even go to 5 years, almost like the Burnett contract from last year. At that point you just need to step away. He's missed time in the beginning of the past two seasons, and the Angels don't really seem concerned to let him get away, I'd be hesitant to sign him to anything long term.
dude, he's not ted lilly… 4/48 would be an insult
Agreed. I would think 4/68.
Exactly my point. He'll most likely get a 5 year deal somewhere and I just wouldn't give him that
By the way, there is no article about the Curtis Granderson rummor? I think that’s the most interesting of the latest rummors…
He's a platoon player, so that kind of scares me off… what with Ellsbury and Drew already being lefties and Drew exhibiting some platoon tendencies.
agreed Granderson is not a player the Sox need
Agree. But, what about the idea of REPLACING Ellsbury with Granderson… I don't want Ellsbury in LF anyway, because his bat is not good enough for a corner outfielder. And Granderson is one of the best centerfielders in the game; he is a big upgrade over Ellsbury, without a doubt. But what if we use Ellsbury as part of the package to land Granderson? And even if this doesn't work, trading Ellsbury to other team should be easy.
Let me go crazy for a moment: what about signing Holliday and trading for Granderson? Holliday-Granderson-Drew, is one hell of an outfield, defensively and offensively.
Don't get me wrong: A-Gon is still my first target for a trade. But if we fail to land him, Granderson looks like an interesting backup plan.
You'll need to sit him anytime we faced a LHP. Which means a very good right-handed 4th OF. He just probably isn't worth what the Tigers are asking for him
Only viable option I could see replacing ellsbury would be Beltran and thats likely not happening. I would prefer to see him over Bay though.
Fangraphs also just wrote a great article pointing out the fact that the Tigers have no real reason to trade Granderson. The rumors are probably false and it would take too big a package to get him anyway.
I prefer to invest 1/3 of that money for chapman and then resign Bay and/or keep the money and sign whoever is traded to the sox (A-Gon, Halladay). Beckett I would like to resign but in my opinion he will likely be the 3rd starter by next year and giving him big money might be a mistake. I say kick the tires on Hernandez once again and if not then trade for a 1st baseman. Halladay will be there next offseason its just a question of who will pay more the red sox or yanks.
forgot to add next offseason Joe Mauer (might be available) and Carl Crawford will be free agents. I would honestly prefer Crawford over Bay in LF.
An I preffer Holliday over both of them.
Signing him is the top priority for me.
And with "both of them", I mean Bay and Crawford, of course…
well I would sign him to a reasonable contract that is… Neither Bay nor Crawford would make the type of years/money holliday wants.