Clay Buchholz would welcome a long-term deal in the mold of the one teammate Jon Lester has. (AP)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — To this point, the Red Sox haven’t talked with either right-hander Clay Buchholz or his representatives about the possibility of a long-term deal. But Buchholz, who has made clear on a number of occasions that he would be open to such a deal, has had conversations with his agents about what a long-term deal might look like. And precedent suggests that the young right-hander who finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting in 2010 need look no further than a teammate to figure out the sort of years and dollars to expect if he wants to gain financial security from the Sox.

Jon Lester offers a fairly clear indicator of the type of deal that Buchholz might be able to get from the Sox. He signed a deal that will keep him in Boston through at least 2013 during spring training of 2009. At that time, Lester had two years and 75 days of big league service time. After a breakout 2008 campaign in which he went 16-6 with a 3.21 ERA, he had a career mark of 27-8 with a 3.81 ERA, 6.6 strikeouts per nine innings, 3.6 walks per nine and a 1.393 WHIP.

Buchholz is at a nearly identical position in his career. He has two years, 59 days of big league service time. After his outstanding 2010 season, in which he went 17-7 with a 2.33 ERA, he is a career 29-21 pitcher with a 3.68 ERA, 7.0 strikeouts and 3.8 walks per nine innings with a WHIP of 1.356.

Their careers have not been identical, but they’ve followed similar enough trajectories that the five-year, $30 million deal (which includes a $13 million Sox team option for 2014) that Lester signed before the start of the 2009 season would clearly serve as the relevant data point in talks should Buchholz and the Sox engage in dialogue about a long-term deal.

Already, both Blue Jays lefty Ricky Romero (five years, $30.1 million with a $13 million option) and Brewers right-hander Yovani Gallardo (five years, $30.1 million with a $13 million option) have used the Lester deal as the basis for their own long-term deals. And Buchholz, 26, said that those contracts would guide what he might seek in talks with the Sox about a long-term contract.

“I think that would definitely be a base model for it — numbers-wise, security reasons, I think every player with less than three years of service time, that’s what they strive for,” said Buchholz. “I’m not saying I’m as good as Lester or I deserve what he got, but just from the other guys who signed their deal in the past year or so with the same service, I think that’s definitely a good starting point if there ever was one.”

The Sox have a team policy that a long-term deal with players who have accumulated fewer than six years of service time and remain under team control should cover the player’s first free agent season and include a team option. In Buchholz’ case, that would conceivably mean a five-year deal with an option for the 2016 season. Buchholz said that he would have no qualms about a deal of such duration, given his attachment to the Red Sox organization.

“It’s all I know. I definitely wouldn’t mind. Definitely, just from the guys who are coming here who have played somewhere else for a good while in their career, coming here and picking to come here, it shows you something about the organization. It’s a great place to play, obviously. The fan base is good. I think it’s a better environment to come out and play the first day in spring training when you actually have people in camp and have people hollering and screaming,” Buchholz said. “I just think it’d be a great place to be for a while.”