The Seattle Mariners and free-agent outfielder Jason Bay have reportedly agreed on a one-year contract worth slightly more than $1 million. Expected to alternate between the outfield and designated hitter, Bay is a British Columbia native and a graduate of Gonzaga University who most recently played for the New York Mets.
The 34-year-old Bay’s agreement with Seattle was first reported by the Associated Press and FOX Sports. The Mariners have not yet made Bay’s signing official.
Bay signed a four-year, $66 million deal with the Mets in 2010, but he endured three injury-plagued seasons in which the former three-time All-Star hit just 26 home runs with 124 RBIs. Last year, in 70 games, Bay hit .165 with eight homers and 20 RBIs. He spent more than a month on the disabled list with a broken rib and then missed another month with a concussion.
Bay was owed $16 million by the Mets for the 2013 season when they mutually agreed to terminate his contract last month.
Bay broke into the major leagues with San Diego in 2003. He later played for Pittsburgh (2003-08) and Boston (2008-09) before signing with the Mets. He was an All-Star in 2005, 2006 and 2009, and had his best overall season in 2005 when he hit .306 with 32 home runs. He also had a big year in 2009 with a career-high 36 home runs and 119 RBIs.
The 2004 National League Rookie of the Year, Bay won a Silver Slugger award in 2009, when he had a .921 OPS.
The Mariners are also reportedly interested in former Yankees Nick Swisher and Raul Ibanez, who had two stints with the Mariners (1996-00, ’04-08) and hit 19 homers for New York last season. Swisher is coming off a year in which he hit 24 home runs and drove in 93. He has hit at least 23 home runs for eight consecutive seasons.
Michael Bourn also reportedly interests Seattle and, if acquired, would become the club’s centerfielder and leadoff hitter
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I lobbied for Jason Bay from the day he was released from the Mets. If his health returns he could be of massive help to the Mariners. I wouldn’t bring back Ibanez though. The buzz the last time he was here was that he was an agitator in the clubhouse.
Herb, Bay has been broken for three years. I know the Mariners have had some good reclamation projects, like Oliver Perez, but he’s a placedholder, not a player.
Regarding the suspention of the Seahawks cornerbacks, I suggest that there must be a way, perhaps financial to punish the two without destroying the cliub’s chances of a post season. It was two guys, not the whole team. Group punishment has never been fair and never will be.
The only way to make a drug policy work is to make it hurt bad for the individual. This is one quarter of their annual salary gone. I don’t like the NFL procedures, but the principle is the same as at the Olympics: deterrence by severity.
OK, Chuck and Howie can check Clean Cut, Local Boy, Old, Broken, and Milquetoast all off the list with this one! Impressive. Lets see who JZ is allowed to sign next, if anyone at all. He was pretty emphatic yesterday on the radio about believing the guys we have are going to be able to do it. I’ve been saying it all along, too. They didn’t move in the fences so that they could go sign a big bat that wouldn’t wither and shrivel at the sight of the outfield. No, they moved in the fences so they could stay on the cheap and be hailed as geniuses when Ackley, Smoak, etc., all hit 30+ HR’s. They’ll all hit 30+ HR’s, of course, while losing games 13-10 instead of 3-1. But hey… it will be entertaining, right? That’s all Chuck and Howie want. They want fans to come back, and in their sick, twisted minds they are trying to achieve this through improving the quality of the entertainment, not the quality of the product. They are still refusing to believe the notion that wins will bring the fans back. Logic appears to be their kryptonite. They are like my 6 year old when she doesn’t want to believe what I am telling her is the truth, running around with her fingers in her ears going “Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah, I can’t hear you!” Its as if they are going out of their way to avoid everything that entails running a winning an organization.
Hard to argue, Eff. I realize the cost and single year is minimal, and they have reclaimed one Mets reject, Oliver Perez. But it appears the the pool of veteran hitting talent available to them must have a hometown angle. Bay, a Zag, likes it here, which in a couple years will make a him a fine backup truck salesman to Jay Buhner. Maybe John Olerud is ready for a comeback.
These guys never surprise.
Never.
Caveat: I’m only surprised they can actually sustain their bargain-table consistency and play it to the microphone like what they do matters.
Penny ante over and over and hope for the long shot.
Only Hope: They are mostly geezers (not only in their day-old bakery thinking) from the top rung to the third rung.
The nightmare named the Mariners, heralded into our worlds when Lincoln the arrogant stepped in, cannot, obviously, last forever.
Geezers have a shelf life.
As a borderline geezer, I hope I see an upper management group who think Lou Pinella was a good baseball manager; who would have listened to him instead of recoiling and spouting the old 50’s era “insubordination” riff.
Same guys who hated the Beatles cause their hair was too long.
Let’s root for anybody not associated with this archaic bunch from the ginko forest.
Tryg, you need to think about shedding the reticence. Open up, pal.
In minor fairness, the deal has “only” $500,000 guaranteed, so if he falls apart like a Fred Sanford jalopy (dating myself), it won’t take much of your season ticket money.