Weeks after being offered the contract, Jason Bay has reportedly agreed to a 4-year, $66 million deal, with a vesting option for a fifth year. (Which would bump it up to 5-year, $80 million.) This was announced by Mike Francesa on his radio show at 2:05PM EST this afternoon and was immediately confirmed by Jon Heyman.
Mike Francesa? That was strange. Why have Francesa break this story? There are a few theories floating around. For one thing, there's the possibility that the Wilpons are absolutely scared to death of the prospect of Omar Minaya announcing anything anymore, following the Adam Rubin incident. For another, the Mets offices are closed this week, so they couldn't make any announcement. However, they wanted to make sure the fans got hold of this news before January 1st. Why? That's the deadline for season ticket holders from last year to renew or update their ticket plans. Oh clever clever Metsies.
My bitter cynicism aside, I kind of like this deal. I don't LOVE it on account of all I keep reading about Jason Bay's terrible defense, and I simply don't believe Bill James's prediction of 32 home runs and 102 RBI's for 2010 factored into the possibility of him playing half of his games at Citi Field, but my gut instinct tells me to look at the lineup now. I mean, look at the projected Opening Day lineup now:
1.Jose Reyes SS
2.Luis Castillo 2B
3.David Wright 3B
4.Carlos Beltran CF
5.Jason Bay LF
6.Jeff Francoeur RF
7.Daniel Murphy 1B
8.Henry Blanco C
9.Johan Santana P
Not terrible. I'm just glad to see Francoeur out of the 3-4-5 area to be honest. I do feel a little bad for Angel Pagan, who hit .306 and had 11 triples in only 88 games. Theoretically, couldn't Minaya build the Mets around pitching and speed? That would be ideal for a team playing at Citi right? It doesn't sell tickets though. And to be fair, Pagan has never stayed healthy. Nono...I like the Bay signing. I'll stop complaining. The press conference next week should be fun. I really hope Bay doesn't flat out lie and say his dream has always been to play for the Mets. That'd be kind of bad. Of course he can end up charming us all with his rye Canadian wit. You just never know.
2 comments:
Vazz says that he has knee problems. I do not know enough about him to comment on that part.
Interesting about the Jan 1 deadline. I am sure many will renew but at the same time if money is tight and the team is looking like a last placer, then season tix sales will be dismal.
Thanks for keeping me up to date.
From what I've read on twitter a lot of Met fans were waiting to see if they were going to improve the team or not.
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