About a month ago:

John Lackey is reportedly confident that he will receive an extension by Opening Day, but will also want some more offense for this team.

From ESPN:
...the Angels' current ace, John Lackey, has been telling friends he's confident he'll have a contract extension in place by Opening Day. Lackey has one year left on the four-year contract he signed before the 2006 season.

From the LA Times:
After Lackey gave up two runs and lost Game 1, he pointed the finger at his offense. After he gave up two runs and got no decision in Game 4, he warned against that line of questioning.

"Don't stir the pot," he said.

Yet, when the questioning turned to whether he would wait to see what the Angels did with their offense this winter before considering an extension, Lackey answered with one word.

"Absolutely," he said.

Now:

Now that Teixeira has officially signed with the Yankees, one of the Angels' best hitters has left, obviously the opposite of what Lackey was hoping would happen.  The questions I pose are:

1) Does he sign an extension with the Angels or does he try free agency and move on to another team?

2) How many years and how much money does he sign for?  

John Lackey and Derek Lowe have eerily similar numbers over the last three years and, assuming Lackey does hit the free agent market next year, he will be 4 years younger than Lowe is now.  Over the years Lackey, with the exception of this past year, has been a very durable and reliable pitcher.  The Angels knew exactly what they were going to get from him every time out.  That was even true after he missed the first 2 months this past year.  This year Lowe seems to be in the market for around a 4 year, $66 million contract at age 35 (It seems he will probably end up with a 3 year contract with a vesting option for a fourth year).  Could this be an outline or are the contracts of Sabathia, Zito, Santana, etc. more relevant?  

Also, could Burnett's 5 year, $82.5 million contract be the outline.  Burnett is also 31 right now.  Although one could argue Burnett's "stuff" is better, one cannot argue over his durability concerns which are not there for Lackey.  Also, Burnett only seems to pitch well in his "walk" year.   Which pitcher would you rather have, Burnett or Lackey?

My projection: 5 year, $90 million with a vesting option for the sixth year.