John Lackey Earns Big Offseason Paycheck With Postseason Performance

Somewhere John Lackey’s agent, Joe Urbon is smiling.

He is smiling because he knows his client has earned himself a mega payday this offseason with not only his performance last night against the New York Yankees and in the entire postseason.

If I was a major league GM, had money to spend, and needed a pitcher—I would open up the checkbook for Lackey who is a free agent to be.

I am really a big fan of Lackey. And it’s not because he ends up on my fantasy team seemingly every year. I think he is tough,  relatively durable, and he is uber-competitive.

His Game Five performance against the Yankees should have told every GM what Lackey is about.

When Mike Scioscia came to the mound with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and you saw Lackey say “This is mine. This is mine,” every GM in baseball should have said “I want that guy on my team next year.”

Not only was that extremely cool to watch, but it told me I could hand the ball to this guy in Game Seven of the World Series and not even think twice about it.

And yes, Lackey has already taken the ball in Game Seven of a World Series and won.

As for Lackey’s numbers, he is 102-71 with a 3.81 ERA lifetime. He has averaged 29 starts and 188 innings per year. Now, he has missed a couple of starts the last two years because of some arm issues.

That would be the only knock on Lackey’s health. However, these injuries haven’t affected his performance at all considering his K/9, HR/9, H/9, and BB/9 have remained pretty steady over the last couple of years.

Lackey’s starting point for a contract will be AJ Burnett’s five-year, $82 million deal he signed last winter. Lackey is one-year younger (ironically, today is his birthday) and I don’t think there is anyone who would rather have Burnett over Lackey.

What also is in Lackey’s advantage is that he is by far and away the best free agent pitcher on this year’s market . The next best pitcher after Lackey is Joel Pineiro. I don’t think it is even a question who you would rather have.

My guess is Lackey is going to get in the neighborhood of a five-year, $95 million contract.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, and Texas Rangers (if they can find someone to buy the team) could all be suitors for the big right-hander from Texas.

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