On Dec. 30, 2009 Jason Bay signed a 4-year, $66M deal with the Mets that included a $17.5M vesting option.
You know I caught something Jason Bay said right after he arrived to Mets camp and spoke to reporters yesterday.
“For everything I have done in my career, I haven’t done it in New York, and I completely understand that.”
Lets expand on that a little… Check out these numbers I looked up last night…
2003-2009 (Pirates, Red Sox)
183 HR, 619 RBI, .914 OPS – $18.95 million
2010-2011 (Mets)
18 HR, 104 RBI, .723 OPS – $26.75 million
It gets worse…
Bay is still owed $16M in 2012, $16M in 2013 and he has a vesting option for $17.5M in 2014.
For those of you who aren’t all that concerned about that vesting option, maybe you should be. Consider this from Brian Costa of the WSJ who puts that vesting option into perspective:
In 2011, despite playing in only 123 games, Bay still amassed 509 plate appearances. So if he stays reasonably healthy for the next two years, Bay figures to occupy a major chunk of the Mets’ payroll in 2014, when they hope to be in a position to seriously contend again. And unlike Francisco Rodriguez, whom the Mets traded last summer to avoid triggering his $17.5 million vesting option for 2012, Bay has a full no-trade clause.
That’s freaking scary as hell… I mean Luis Castillo-plus-Oliver Perez-squared scary…
I’ll always remember this quote I read in a Joel Sherman article last April when Jason Bay was finally activated from the DL and about to play in his first game since being felled by that concussion in 2010.
“Jason Bay was the compounding of a problem, that they kept spending their money poorly,” said an executive from another team. “They have to get to the mindset of not doing that [bleep] anymore.”
What a perfect way to end this post, and end it I shall.
