Photo taken by Michael Baron
Prior to Tuesday night’s loss to the Miami Marlins, New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told ESPN New York the Mets will not eat the final guaranteed season of Jason Bay’s four-year, $66 million contract, according to Adam Rubin, saying:
“Certainly, there are times when it is appropriate to eat a contract. There are other times when it is not. Jason Bay is not going anywhere, nor is his contract.”
As Rubin states to his blog on ESPN NewYork:
“Bay, who turns 34, is due to make $16 million next season. If he were to have 600 at-bats in 2013, his contract calls for $17 million in 2014. The most at-bats Bay has had in a season as a Met is 444 last year. If Bay doesn’t return in 2014, the Mets would owe him a $3 million buyout so, essentially, there is $19 million that the Mets would have to swallow if they didn’t bring back Bay next season.”
I have a very hard time believing that the Mets will indeed bring Bay back next season; even if he it could cost the club $19 million. I honestly see no way he will be on the roster come opening day 2013. I think the Mets — as they did with Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez — will have Jason attend spring training in an attempt to 1) build some sort of trade value or 2) hope that he can somehow return to the player he once was (doubtful). And then, when neither happens they will eat the remainder of his contract. Just as they did with both Castillo and Perez. As Alderson has done so many times before, he left open the option to change his mind saying, “That is our position now, nothing is 100 percent certainty in baseball.”
Meanwhile, according to Rubin, Alderson said Bay will play in a platoon for the remainder of the season (versus left handed pitchers) in an attempt to get his bat going:
Photo taken by Michael Baron
“He is just has not been able to get on the field except for a few games at a time because of the injuries. It has shown up in his performance. It really has been a hard luck story since he arrived here with a number of injuries that have caused him to be on the field and off the field on an intermittent basis. So hopefully, we can keep him healthy and have him play over a more prolong period, maybe primarily against left-handed pitching and let’s see if we can get him going.”
Which, manager Terry Collins later confirmed, according to Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com.
“We are going to, depending on who is on the mound, make some adjustments out there,” Collins said with regards to Bay’s usage, according to Cerrone. “We have to get our left-handed bats in the lineup.”
When you consider just how abysmal Bay has been this year he is lucky to be on the roster, never mind in any type of significant role. In 134 at-bats for the Mets this year, Bay has just 21 hits, five homeruns and 11 runs batted in and is mired in a 6-for-55 slump lowering his season average to a putrid .157 in the process:
Original Story:
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August 07, 2012
