Bay Declines Boston's Offer

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated has reported that Boston Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay has declined the Boston Red Sox offer and will test the free agency waters. Here is part of his piece, with my thanks...

***Star free agent outfielder Jason Bay has declined Boston's initial contract offer and will head to full free agency, SI.com has learned.***

"Boston's offer to Bay was believed to be for four years and "close to $60 million,'' according to sources. Bay thus will join star outfielder Matt Holliday and ace pitcher John Lackey as the biggest free agents on this year's market. The exclusive period for incumbent teams expires Friday at 12:01 a.m., when free agents can begin negotiating with other teams.
"Nothing will happen by day's end, but we'll keep talking,'' Bay's agent Joe Urbon said.
"It's not a surprise that a player that's gone this far wants to see what's out there,'' Red Sox GM Theo Epstein said."

I agree with Theo...the Red Sox will be competitive with just about any team's offer and hopefully he'll come back to where he likes to play...Boston, Massachusetts. Certain suiters will be the Yankees (of course), the Mets and the other usual suspects. Bay is a valuable commodity, a guy who can hit the living daylights out of the ball and play defense with the best of 'em. If he picks another team, he will be missed...bigtime. Big Papi David Ortiz, who before the 2009 season began called for the team to pick up another booming bat, sounded the alarm again. Here he is, expletive included...

“I said that a year ago and everybody looked at me like I was a fucking clown,” Ortiz said yesterday at Fenway Park. “I said, ‘Yo, we need another 30 home run hitter guy.’ ‘What? You crazy?’ This and that, everyone talking crap. There you go. Now what? Everybody will always welcome a 30 home run hitter. At any time, any day, any situation. You want to compete with those guys across the street (NYY)? You better bring it. Period.”

Let's see...Jason Bay would be one thirty home run guy and someone with the last name of Gonzales, who plays first base, would be another. I, of course, mean Adrian Gonzales. If Boston can add him to their lineup AND sign Jason Bay, well, they would be very competitive with those pinstripers. If Theo has permission to spend a little MORE money, which he will, it would be great to see Mr. Lacky in the rotation and Billy Wagner in the bullpen. Wishful and delusional thinking? Not if they want to win another world championship. I certainly do.

I hope you have a terrific Friday and a tremendous weekend. I expect so much from the Sox this off season but I know from experience not to get my hopes up too high. I have a feeling, though, that Boston will abandon their low-risk low cost thinking that has been so prevalent the past couple of years to very mixed results, if not downright disastrous (think pitching).

That's it for this stormy (no snow) Friday morning. Make it a good one and as always, BE WELL. You can click on this post's title for more Sox news. See ya.