Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports says that a club engaged in talks with John Lackey indicate that the free agent righty is looking for a contract longer, and with a greater average annual value than A.J. Burnett's five year, $82.5MM pact.
If true, Lackey could be seeking $17MM+ per year over a period of six or more years, which would put the total value of a potential contract in the nine figures. When Burnett signed his deal, he was coming off two seasons in which he posted a 3.93 ERA with a 2.68 K/BB ratio in 387 total innings. In Lackey's last two seasons, he's thrown 339.2 innings with a 3.79 ERA and a 3.07 K/BB ratio.
What do the readers of MLBTR think, is Lackey worth that kind of cash?
