Jason Bay still has to pass a physical (no sure thing). He still has to pass a stink test that he actually wants to be a Met (no sure thing). And he still has to pass through several hundred games as a two-way player (no sure thing).
Besides that, the Mets have come to agreement on a contract with the perfect player — as long as Jason Bay can pitch.
Bay certainly has assets. His pull power translates to any park. He is known as a good guy (but not a leader), a hard worker and is proven in a tough Northeast city (Boston).
But the down side of the four-year, $66 million agreement outweighs the positives:
1. The Red Sox were worried about how Bay would hold up over four years, with particular worry about his shoulders. The Mets refused to acknowledge this agreement because there still is a physical to complete, and the Mets have learned their lesson from the Yorvit Torrealba fiasco.
After the 2007 season, the Mets agreed to a three-year, $14.4 million deal with Torrealba, confirmed the deal and then backed out because the physical supposedly revealed issues with his shoulders; and the Mets still are involved in litigation over the matter. This offseason, they ended up renegotiating the guaranteed value of Henry Blanco’s original deal after a physical revealed shoulder problems.
So while it remains a slim chance that the Mets fail Bay on a physical, there will be no rubber stamp.
2. Omar Minaya has talked a lot about building around defense and speed, and the Mets built a new stadium that accentuates those skills. And the Mets now have given the third-largest average annual value in their history to a player who has neither asset.
In Boston, Bay was protected defensively by the Green Monster. Now, as in his Pittsburgh days, Bay will have to deal with one of the largest left fields in the majors, and he is a conservative fielder with an iffy arm and lacking speed; and the physical shortcomings should worsen during his age 31-34 seasons.
3. The Mets determined a power bat was their No. 1 quest this offseason, but that should have paled to finding a high-end complement to Johan Santana.
Two AL officials say the Cubs are definitely dangling Carlos Zambrano, who has three years at $53.75 million left. The same officials say Zambrano, for comfort reasons, has no desire to waive his no-trade clause and leave Chicago. But in Santana, Francisco Rodriguez and Kelvim Escobar, the Mets have three pitching friends from Zambrano’s native Venezuela to offer for comfort. So maybe there still is a chance to import the volatile but talented Zambrano.
If the Mets’ lone big move is Bay, then they will be better offensively in 2010 but still will be at the mercy of Oliver Perez and John Maine. They also will have invested in a player with big questions about how he will age while tying up long-term payroll with better free-agent classes projected the next two years.
The Mets should have spread the Bay money on one-year contracts to multiple players to provide better quality depth around Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, David Wright, K-Rod and Santana — while hoping the quintet was healthy and productive.
Instead, the Mets turned to a player who by all indications wanted to be a Detroit Lion or Los Angeles Clipper more than a New York Met. But the dollars never materialized anywhere else.
Beltran didn’t really want to be a Met, but learned to like it here. So maybe this will work. But I have a feeling that in a few years the Mets will have regrets and will want to be flushing Bay.
joel.sherman@nypost.com