8
2011
What About A Jason Bay for Adam Dunn Swap?
An article by 
Jason Bay has been awful in his stay thus far with the Mets. I don’t even think in my worst dreams would I have thought that he would be this bad. When you start to think about trades, you immediately think that a guy like Jason Bay is not tradeable due to his hefty contract and lack of production. But, there are other guys who were signed to big contracts by other teams, who are also failing and could use a change of scenery.
Yesterday I was driving and listening to WFAN on the radio, and I heard a potential trade from someone of two under performing players that got me intrigued. The suggested trade was the Chicago White Sox struggling slugger Adam Dunn for our struggling slugger Jason Bay. This is not uncommon in baseball, or any sport for that matter. Players who are signed and struggle mightily in a new city or new league, are shopped around to other teams who have players in the same situation. The hope is generally that a change of scenery will help the players involved and get them back performing the way they are capable of.
Both players are signed through 2014, with Bay’s 2014 a team option with a 3.5M buyout. Bay makes 18M each of the next three seasons while while Dunn makes 14M next season and 15M in 2013-2014. Each player is in the midst of their worst professional season to date. Adam Dunn is hitting a paltry .176, with 5 homers and 23 RBI. He is struggling as the DH, as he adjusts to a new league and the fact that he is no longer playing the field anymore. Even with his terrible batting average, his run production is still more than double Bay’s, as Jason still sits on 2 home runs and 10 RBI.
With Adam Dunn’s elite power, hitting home runs out of Citi Field would be easy, he does not hit any cheap ones. He would also feel more comfortable batting in the NL where he has played his whole career. While he is a liability in the field, if you stuck him in left you could survive because he is average enough, and his offense would outweigh his defensive woes. As for Bay, what can you say. He plays hard, he runs hard and……he’s lost his stroke all together. He may get it back, but with it going on for the second consecutive season, if there’s a taker he needs to be gone.
Would you do this trade? If not, why not? Can you think of any other possible big contract, poor performance swaps?
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About the Author: Dan Valis
I am a staff writer for Mets Merized Online. I am a Mets team analyst with a focus on the minor league system, as well as the major league club. I am a lifelong New Yorker who was born and raised to be a Mets fan. The ups and downs of being a Mets fan is what makes following this team so much fun, but at times so frustrating. You can follow me on Twitter @BgAppleMetsTalk.
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I’m not sure. Dunn is a terrible fielder. At least Bay has been playing a solid LF so far.
Bay makes more money but has the buyout for that final year. That may even the contracts out in management’s eyes.
It’s intriguing and not horribly one sided.
Definitely worth a shot. Dunn has hit more homeruns at Citi than Bay has.
There’s always been that suggestion that career NL players struggle when moving to the AL, at least initially. Dunn is a poor fielder, but his defense is likely better than the offense Bay is providing and Dunn has a better shot at returning to form offensively than Bay does.
Worth a shot, as I keep saying we should get more lefthanded bats in our stadium if they do not lower and bring in leftfield fences.
Stink for stink. But Dunn will walk more and the size of the field means nothing to him. Takes too many called third strikes, unlike Bay, who swings and misses at too many called third strikes.
strike that second “called”.
This is a bad idea…..Adam Dunn despite tremendous power is not what the Mets need. He is slow and a poor fielder. Jason Bay has always been a run producer but has struggled trying to live up to his contract. He may need to sit for a week but eventually he should come around at the plate. At that point he would be a much better all around player than Dunn could ever be……We are better off being patient a bit longer!
How much longer, Alan? Bay’s played 133 games as a Met. That’s nearly a full season. He’s hitting 245/.336/.369. How much longer do we wait before we try something else?
garbage for garbage..
I hate Adam Dunn, plus didnt him and Ricciardi have it out or something?
Ya, Ricciardi made some not so nice comments about Dunn’s commitment and it got weird.
I remember those. I agreed with them at the time.
At first blush this seems a bad idea: Dunn has no range in the OF, his BA and OPS are WORSE than Bay’s. However, consider this: while Ike Davis is out he can play 1B allowing Daniel Murphy to play 3B (okay, not the greatest defensive alignment I admit) with Pridie playing LF. Also, LH power hitters fare much better in Citi Field than RH power hitters giving some hope that returning to the NL could also help Dunn.
But then, there is this: Dunn will have 3 years remaining on his contract while Bay only 2. If Dunn hits .220 with the Mets with 20 HR this rest of the year he will become a worse impediment to team finances in the long run. Then, there is the Dunn-Riciardi fiasco of a couple years ago. While Dunn may say he’s moved on, would he approve a trade to a team where this man is employed? Then again, there was the Carlos Delgado/Tony Bernazard thing that happened just before Delgado signed with the Marlins and he ended up with the Mets and Bernazard the next season. So it could work.
In the end, the ? is, is this a gamble worth taking? Bay could find his power in the friendly confines of Chicago’s small park while Dunn may be more comfortable back in the NL. At the end of the day it may come down to the age old adage of “what do you have to lose?”.
Bay has the vesting option. 500 PAs is not hard to get for a starting LF.
Bay will be platooned (by merit) at that point so he doesn’t attain 500 AB’s.
Veteran’s also can demand trades, if their traded in the middle of a multi year contract so there’s that and no way Dunn can be put in LF.
Swapping problems is not the answer. All your doing is trading your headache for someone else’s!
No agree to pay half his salary and get some kid for him.
You can at least trade that kid later for something else.
get Dunn and your done just paying another contract you can’t unload!
I’m ready for all of your insults, but I believe Bay is going to make himself a worthy Met in all of your eyes before long. He is spooked now, but he is going to turn it around.
Dunn would be an oafish nightmare. The HRs wouldn’t compensate for all of the other ways in which he sucks, including, purportedly, his not very good clubhouse attitude.
Try to be a little more patient w/ Bay despite how idiotic that may sound.
Right now I also agree completely that he sucks.
I’m ready for all of your insults, but I believe Bay”
russell, i like you, but i stopped reading after that … lol..
When you look around baseball now, you see a lot of grotesquely bad contracts and there are some things that you will find about each one of them.
Firstly, a lot of them belong to the Mets and Cubs.
Secondly, for every bad contract there is another team with an equally bad contract.
So I never want to hear someone say “It is an unmovable contract. He can’t be dealt.”
Nonsense! Anyone can be dealt. You want proof? The Cubs found a taker for Milton Bradley!
What you need to do with your awful contract is find someone else who is as stupid as you and swap out your trash.
And after you trade one awful contract for another, hope for one more thing: That a change of scenery is what they needed.
Obviously anyone signed to a big contract must have a little talent. Yes, even Kei Igawa.
And sometimes they just can’t find their groove in one place but catch fire somewhere else.
Remember how Jose Contreras looked lost and overwhelmed with the Yankees?
The same guy became a front line pitcher for the 2005 World Champion White Sox, throwing a complete game victory to clinch the pennant.
Remember how Jeff Weaver looked as confident as Beaker in The Muppet Show while pitching for the Yankees and Angels? But the same year he was let go by Los Angeles of Anaheim, he became a World Series hero for the Cardinals.
In each of the last three decades there was a player who was considered damaged goods and either cut or put in a salary dump that went on to become a World Series MVP. (Dave Stewart, Scott Brosius and Mike Lowell.)
So make some swaps!
What do you think the Reds were thinking they’d get out of Josh Hamilton after he flamed out of Tampa?
You think the Phillies thought they picked up a player worth $126 million when they gave Jayson Werth a shot after his wrist surgery?
So let’s line up some bad contracts and see what kind of deals we can make.
I’ll try to trade bad contract for bad contract as close to dollar for dollar as I can. (The clubs could work out the cash details.)
And sometimes I am having a team take on more money up front to get out of a bad long term deal.
So let’s make some deals.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/trading-those-untradable-contracts/
Of course this trade makes sense for the Mets…however, the White Sox would be idiots if they made this trade. Adam Dunn may be hitting only .176, but he is a career .248 hitter who in the past 7 seasons has hit 46, 40, 40, 40, 40, 38, and 38 HR’s. He is a strikeout machine who hits bombs…his power will come around, and he will probably end up batting around .220 this season. Bay on the other hand, is coming off a terrible season and following it up with a terrible season. He makes more money than Dunn, and his potential to come out of his 2 season long funk seems less likely than Dunn coming out of his 2 month funk. By the way, for all of you sabreheards…Bay is batting 36 points higher than Dunn…but his OBP is 6 points lower than Dunn…so at the moment, at least Dunn still frightens pitchers enough to pitch around him…no one is scared of Bay. Great move for the Mets…terrible move for the White Sox…not going to happen.
It’s not a terrible idea, but i’m kind of hoping Jason K gets abducted by aliens
I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Bay is a cool dude…but he sucks as a Met.
Dunn=Dave Kingman 2011
I would do the trade. Dunn has had success in the national league and Bay has had success in the american league. You could play Dunn 7 or 8 innings then make a defensive switch with Duda, Pridie or whomever. Look into it!