BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Jason Bay, walking off after a strikeout this season, never came close to living up to the four-year, $66 million deal he signed with the Mets before the 2010 season. (
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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — No freaking Bay.
In an effort to numb the pain of the biggest free-agent miscalculation in franchise history and create at least some payroll flexibility for next season, the Mets yesterday finalized a buyout of Jason Bay’s contract, ending the underachieving outfielder’s tenure with the team.
Bay will receive the full $21 million he is owed, but instead of having to pay that all over the next 12 months, the Mets will defer a portion over what was described as several years. That will give them potentially a few more dollars to spend this offseason when money is still tight for the organization. But a person who was directly involved in the negotiations said the 2013 money saved is not significant and the Mets’ driving force was to get divorced as quickly as possible from a relationship gone wrong.
Bay was due $16 million in 2013, had a $3 million buyout on a 2014 option and still had $2 million remaining to be paid from his signing bonus from when he inked a four-year, $66 million deal before the 2010 season.
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Bay has a good reputation in the game and pre-existing relationship with executives with the Red Sox, Indians and Cubs, so he may be able to land some place on a contract with a low base and incentives as he tries to reclaim a career that plummeted in New York.
”I still feel I have plenty to give to this game and that I can play baseball at a high level,” Bay said in a statement. “But after serious consideration, both sides agree that we would benefit from a fresh start.”
In 70 games last season, the 34-year-old Bay hit .165 with eight homers and 20 RBIs. Over three disappointing seasons with the Mets, he hit only 26 homers. A year before signing with the Mets, he hit 36 homers for the Red Sox.
“He would put so much pressure on himself to hit, it just could never click consistently for him,” Mets hitting coach Dave Hudgens told The Post yesterday.
“When the game started he would have a tight, hard, muscly swing. He wanted to do so well for his teammates.”
Bay’s misery was exacerbated as he suffered two concussions with the Mets. The first cost him the final two months of the 2010 season, and the most recent sidelined him for four weeks last summer.
In mid-September, a team official told The Post there was “zero” chance Bay would be released this offseason, as the Mets did not want to gamble on the possibility the player would resurrect his career elsewhere on their dime.
But the desire to free some dollars for 2013 — and rid themselves from the negative vibe of having Bay around — led the Mets to intensify their efforts to reach a termination agreement over the past few days.
”He was giving his best right to the end, but it was a difficult time for him and we saw that,” assistant general manager John Ricco said.
The Players Association only would have given its blessing to having a player lower the current-day value of his contract — as Bay did by deferring money — if he received something of corresponding or greater value. The union saw the additional money Bay could earn now in a 2013 contract elsewhere as fitting that criteria.
“It was good for both sides,” a team official said.
The Mets made this move with Bay despite being in a horrible situation in their outfield. Lucas Duda fractured his wrist last month and the team is unlikely to tender a contract to Andres Torres.
“[Bay] is such a professional,” manager Terry Collins said. “I’m hoping that he can go elsewhere and have some peace of mind.”
According to an official who was negotiating with Bay at the same time as the Mets in 2009, Bay did not want to play in New York and wound up taking the contract because it offered him the most money. So there will be teams that will see Bay as a good, low-pay, change-of-scenery risk.
“I have no regrets in signing with the Mets other than I wasn’t able to play to the level that the team, the fans and I all expected and we weren’t able to win more games,” Bay said. “I move on with nothing but an appreciation for the organization and its fans and best wishes to all my teammates there.”