Lackey to Undergo Tommy John Surgery

[jiminnj]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/10/john-lackey-to-undergo-tommy-john-surgery.html

Red Sox righty John Lackey will undergo Tommy John surgery, new GM Ben Cherington announced today. WEEI's Rob Bradford reported Lackey's visit to Dr. Lewis Yocum earlier today, noting that the surgery causes a sixth-year option to vest for Lackey at the league minimum. This is a good thing for Boston - it reduces the average annual value of the contract from $16.5MM to $13.8MM, creating luxury tax savings.

[Frobby]

Pretty clever of Boston to throw a clause like that into Lackey's contract. Maybe they'll put it in Wilson's.

[weams]

http://www.babeslovebaseball.com/2011/10/john-lackey-and-his-641-era-to-undergo.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+babeslovebaseball%2FnjNM+%28Babes+Love+Baseball%29

The right-hander seriously sucked it up in 2011, ending the season with a 12-12 record and 6.41 ERA. If he wasn't in his second of a five-year, $82.5 million contract -- at the age of 33 no less -- he would totally be a free agent right about now.

[The Rick]

This is interesting because they are just now running the tests/diagnosing the problem/addressing the problem.

If this were the O's, there would be a 10+ page thread right now bashing the organization for not addressing this earlier when it was "clear" that he wasn't right.

[Skeletor]

Pretty clever of Boston to throw a clause like that into Lackey's contract. Maybe they'll put it in Wilson's.

Maybe. Or you might get a guy who hides an injury down the stretch of a historic collapse.

[Stotle]

http://www.babeslovebaseball.com/2011/10/john-lackey-and-his-641-era-to-undergo.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+babeslovebaseball%2FnjNM+%28Babes+Love+Baseball%29

The right-hander seriously sucked it up in 2011, ending the season with a 12-12 record and 6.41 ERA. If he wasn't in his second of a five-year, $82.5 million contract -- at the age of 33 no less -- he would totally be a free agent right about now.

Boston built in a pretty smart vesting option in Lackey's contract, which means another year is added at the league minimum (I believe). So, in the event of an injury like this, Boston gets him at essentially free for an extra year. It's moot if he's terrible for those years, but if he rebounds back to 2009 levels where he was good not great, he'll be worth his contract from 2013-2015. If he's 80% of what he was in 2009 he will not be worth his contract, but it certainly won't be a disaster.

[scOtt]

Maybe. Or you might get a guy who hides an injury down the stretch of a historic collapse.

Would you want to eat beer and chicken alone?