Last week Peter Gammons reported that Boston and Jason Bay “had agreed on the framework” of a four-year, $60 million contract in July, but the Red Sox pulled the offer when an MRI exam raised red flags about the health of his knees. While appearing on WEEI radio today Gammons revealed a few more details:
Bay did struggle with a knee injury in 2007, but for the most part he’s been among baseball’s most durable players, appearing in 892 of a possible 946 games since early 2004, including at least 145 games in each of the past five seasons. Certainly at 31 years old not missing much time in the past doesn’t preclude the Red Sox’s concerns about the future of Bay’s knees from being legitimate, but presumably even the Mets have a doctor on staff who can competently read an MRI. Right? Right?!
They wanted him, but they were scared to death of his knees. I never got the impression from either side, from his agents or his club, that the shoulder was that big of a deal. But they were really afraid of both knees and that’s why they dropped the offer from four years to two years.
Somebody said to me, “Gee, there was only one team that went after him, the Mets.” I said, “Yeah, you don’t think that the Angels have requested MRIs? You don’t think the Mariners have requested? They weren’t in on him either.” The Mets were the only team in on Jason.
