UPDATE 2: Jon Heyman says that Lackey’s contract is five years, $85 million. I’ll wait a bit before passing judgment because initial contract term rumors end up being more “in the area” than accurate. I will say that if it’s a fully guaranteed five years, I am very, very surprised Boston chose Lackey of all people to commit five years to. This seems to signal that Jason Bay will not return, although I’m sure the door is not closed just yet.
UPDATE: Ken Rosenthal confirms Price’s information, says the deal will be similar to A.J. Burnett’s. No surprise there.
ORIGINAL: Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse tweets that John Lackey is taking a physical with the Red Sox. If true (Price is working to confirm the rumor from a source he trusts), Boston at the very least has some sort of framework agreement in place with Lackey to bring him to Beantown. Yesterday, I promoted the signing of Lackey to help grease a potential Adrian Gonzalez trade. (This is why you should be following me on Twitter!)
Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldsten says that Aroldis Chapman has a $15.5 million deal from Boston in hand, which would be a major-league deal. Chapman figures to end up with more than that as it would be a bargain to get Chapman for that price. The 21-year old is slated to throw for interested teams tomorrow, so his market should move quickly after that.