SI’s Jon Heyman writes that, despite the fact that that all of the other teams that need a left fielder are not really interested in Jason Bay, there is a “mystery team” in the running for him, making life harder for the Mets. At the risk of falling into conspiracy theory land, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that, even though he is not Bay’s agent, Scott Boras is inventing the “mystery team.” My thinking:
- The Mets are widely reported to have focused on Bay over Holliday because they think he’ll be easier to sign;
- Boras needs the Mets to jump into the Matt Holliday derby, because his dude needs to get paid crazy Omar money or at the very least needs to use them to leverage the Cardinals;
- By creating a rumor of a “mystery team,” the only advantage Bay has over Holliday -- his alleged signability -- is neutralized, thereby making Holliday more appealing to the Mets.
So that’s my theory. The mystery team is a fantasy. And you can’t doubt me on that. I got it from an anonymous source whose identity is, like, a total mystery.