Plea to the Yankees: Don't Sign John Lackey

Many teams have been linked to top free-agent pitcher John Lackey. Among those are the Mets, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, and, of course, the Yankees.



Last year I pleaded to the Yankees that they should NOT sign A.J. Burnett. I was wrong so far and I will admit that.

What Yankees fans should be afraid of is that the Yankees could be paying their third starter equally or more than their second starter. While the rotation would be great for the upcoming years and the Yankees do have the money, why not spend the money on various holes, rather than one?

John Lackey was 11-8 with a 3.83 ERA last year. His career ERA is 3.81. Those are some average numbers for someone commanding $82M or more. Meanwhile, Lackey is also an injury risk having pitched in less than 30 games each of the last two seasons.

The Yankees can use that $82M over the next five seasons ($16.4M per year) and sign either a top outfielder (Jason Bay or Matt Holliday) OR one pitcher (Rich Harden, Jason Marquis, Erik Bedard, Justin Duchscherer) AND one outfielder (Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Marlon Byrd, Jermaine Dye)

Don't you think you would rather have the latter of the two? Thoughts? Send em' along in the comments.