January 12, 2014

Former Mets Great Bay Set To Hang Up The Spikes

It is with deep regret that I inform you all the Jason Bay appears to be retiring from the game of baseball. Ok, enough with the sarcasm. As reported by Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, Bay has not filed the official retirement paperwork. However his market appears very dry and it's likely he is done. Bay considered going to play ball in Japan, but has decided he'd rather stay home with his family.

Jason Bay the icing on the failed cake baked by Omar Minaya. His lack of production, along with his gaudy contract, handcuffed the Mets. Along with Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo (also Minaya contracts), Bay was paid by the Mets to not come to work in the final year of his bad deal. In fact, he will still be paid three million dollars in deferred money this year by the team.

As much as I want to rip him, I won't. He seems like a nice guy and he played hard. It just didn't work out. It happens, although it seems like it happens far too often with the Mets. The Mets went after Bay instead of Matt Holiday in 2010 because they thought his hitting approach translated better at Citi Field. They were wrong. I preferred Holiday, but I was happy with signing Bay. Most of us were. Bay appeared to quickly be psyched out by the big dimensions. This, coupled with a concussion suffered from running into a fence in LA, led him to be a shell of his former self for the last 4 years of his career. Was it the dimensions, the concussion, age or pressure that led to his lack of productivity? Who knows. All I know is that I'm glad it's over and that I decided not to buy that Bay jersey opening day of 2010.

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