John Lackey’s initial interest in signing with the Red Soxeven caught general manager Theo Epstein off-guard, but the pairing begins to make a bit more sense now that we find outLackey’s wife Krista went to Sanford High School in Maine and graduated from the University of New Hampshire:
“I don’t think they thought I’d be interested,” John Lackey said Wednesday at the news conference announcing his signing. “But I always was. I definitely had to have my agent really let them know I was serious about this. The wife helped out a lot. My wife went to UNH. Coming to Boston was a family decision.”
It all sounds great, but the $82.8 million the Red Sox forked over probably didn’t hurt, either. You know, it’s a good thing Lackey signed on the dotted line before someone puked on Krista’s fur coat in Kenmore Square. Welcome to the neighborhood!
Something you may have missed during the rush up to Christmas, Lackey’s contractincludes a conditional option for 2015 at the major league minimumif the right-hander is forced to miss significant time due to an old elbow injury. Lackey has missed starts over each of the past two seasons with elbow issues.