When the dust finally settled on the wild flurry of activity among pitchers on Monday and Tuesday, Jason Bay stood as the biggest winner of the transactions. He wasn't signed by the Red Sox, like John Lackey, nor dealt in a Cy Young three-way swap for the ages, but Bay did stand as the last big ticket item available on the market for the Mets to put under the theoretical tree they share with their fans.
That's just one of the reasons why Bay's got a good chance of getting the fifth year he reportedly wants added to his contract offer from the Mets. Omar Minaya needs to bring home a major pelt to show the team's fans that the brass understands what the team needs to bounce back from the mess that was the 2009 season. If they don't land Bay, it will be very hard for them to come up with that kind of name acquistion and that's going to keep feeding the notion that Minaya can't get the job done and/or the Mets can't compete on or off the field with the real marquee franchises.
Welcome to the corner you've painted yourself into, Mets. It's hard to imagine that the prudent move for a team with as many needs as the Mets would be to spend $15 million or so on an outfielder who mashed in a hitters park while moving to a less friendly stadium, especially since he's not particularly good defensively. The problem is, the Mets can't sell doing anything else.
They've already gone out of their way to let everyone know that they mapped all of Bay's hits and found that he's a perfect fit for Citi Field, and they've either been rebuffed or uninterested in any other name player who will excite a rankled fanbase. If Minaya had engendered a little more goodwill over the last three years, he could sell that spending that much on Bay makes less sense than bolstering the pitching staff, signing Bengie Molina and perhaps signing an outfielder whose complete game made him a good, fit for the Mets needs at a better price.
As it stands, though, Bay could probably go on WFAN, tell New Yorkers that he wants to be paid in Euros for the next seven years while getting a cut of the Shake Shack stand in the outfield and still wind up with people demanding the Mets sign him. It's a tough spot, to say the least.
It's hard not to see a little David Paterson in Minaya right now, as you get the sense that the G.M. isn't convinced Bay is the best course of action right now. It's the politically prudent one, however, which is a lot like when the governor dropped a plan to make drivers pay $25 for new plates as a way to close the budget gap. The fact that it is good PR in December doesn't seem like it will get Minaya any kudos if Bay hits 16 home runs and the Mets finish third nor does Paterson seem any likelier to remain in office because he saved everybody a pair of movie tickets.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
