Here is a followup to a post I wrote last week on Jason Bay AKA The 500 Pound Gorilla In The Corner Outfield. Mike Puma of the NY Post writes this morning:
A club official yesterday floated the possibility that if Bay is struggling six or seven weeks into the season, the Mets could explore other options, including a platoon in left.
Bay is hitting .195 with no RBIs this spring after going 0-for-3 in the Mets’ 9-2 exhibition loss to the Tigers yesterday.
If the Mets were to consider a platoon, Puma writes, it could bode well for lefty-swinging Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who is slated to begin the season at Triple-A Buffalo.
I wish we had a right-handed option we could take a look at too in addition to Nieuwenhuis, but I guess in a platoon it won’t really matter. I’m just concerned with all the other lefty bats in the lineup with Duda, Murphy, Davis and Thole.
Original Post 3/30
For some odd reason, after Terry Collins said he’d be playing his regulars through the last few games of Grapefruit League action, Jason Bay was not penciled into left field today, Vinny Rottino was. The Mets lost 4-3 incidentally, and are 7-17 in Grapefruit action.
So where was Jason Bay? Is he already so weary that he needed a rest? He’s only played in 15 of 24 games so far this spring, and he’s tallied a grand total of 35 at-bats in those games.
He’s also batting .229 with as many home runs and RBIs as my next door neighbor Sam Volpe. Sam is 69 years old, has a great vegetable garden, and as you may have guessed, he has no home runs or RBI’s this spring.
Andrew Keh of the NY Times referred to Bay as “a lost soul, a man untethered from his true self.” That’s one way of looking at it I guess, or you could simply describe Bay as a lost cause, a player who will never live up to that contract he bamboozled out of the Mets.
Are you tired of all the sob stories? All the feel good stories? All the he’s such a nice guy stories? All the never-ending supply of excuses? I know I am.
“I honestly don’t know what my average is, but I know I don’t have a home run, I know I don’t have an R.B.I., I know all that”.
Give him props for knowing where he stands. After more than halfway into his 4-year deal, Bay is still trying to figure things out.
“I’m not standing here telling you results don’t matter. But we’ve got a timetable to try to figure things out. That’s what this time is for, and I feel like now I have a pretty good grasp going forward.”
I have a pretty good grasp going forward too and it includes playing Bay less and less and ensuring he doesn’t get anywhere close to 500 plate appearances this season. That’s the magic number that could kick in a $18 million dollar vesting option for our Canadian cousin.
If I’m the Mets – it’s open tryouts in left field all season long in 2012.
Sorry, Jason, you’re not our left fielder anymore. You are in fact our albatross.
