Trading Jason Bay - by Jack Flynn

Trading Jason Bay isn’t that difficult. I just did so last week.

There were actually plenty of choices at my fingertips, and I couldn’t find even one general manager who insisted that I eat any portion of the remaining $35 million on Bay’s contract.

Two offers in particular really intrigued me. I could take back Garrett Richards, a young hurler from the California Angels farm system buried in Triple-A because of the Halos’ envious depth of starting pitching. Or I could swing the deal for Rafael Soriano, the veteran New York Yankees reliever who has put together a number of dominant seasons when he wasn’t shelved by injuries.

I thought about it and decided to go for Richards. You can never have enough starting pitching, after all, even if it meant starting out as a Buffalo Bison. Bay was off to Southern California, presumably to battle with Mark Trumbo, Mike Trout, Vernon Wells, Peter Bourjos and Torii Hunter for playing time in the outfield.

Oh, and Richards is making the league minimum, so I was able to free up well over $15 million in payroll over the next two years.

All in all, a pretty good deal.

Life as the general manager of the New York Mets, of course, is not quite as easy as playing MLB2K12 on XBOX 360, the medium I used to bring about a premature end to the Jason Bay era in New York. Sandy Alderson, should he decide to entertain offers for Bay now that he’s back in New York, may find doing so somewhat more difficult than I did.

The fantasy baseball era has spawned a legion of baseball fans who intrinsically believe that trading an unwanted asset is as simple as throwing a proverbial hook into the water and pulling out whatever bites. The reality is obviously much more complicated.

Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto isn’t going to offer Garrett Richards to Alderson in exchange for Bay. Even if he took temporary leave of his senses and decided to do so, he sure as hell wouldn’t do the deal with no money exchanged to offset the difference in contracts. Finding a trade partner for Jason Bay is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

The more likely scenario is that Bay is going to play full-time in left field, with Scott Hairston and Kirk Nieuwenhuis platooning in center field. Lucas Duda is going to be in the lineup, either in right field or at first base. That leaves Andres Torres or Ike Davis as the odd man out upon Bay’s return.

Yes, Davis has been horrible this year, but the word here is that Torres should be riding the pine instead. He is a good fourth outfielder for a playoff team when he’s going well – and a .216/.333/.324 slash line does not constitute “going well.” The Mets are better off giving Ike more time to try to get things going again out of the fifth spot, with Bay as his protection.

Just in case, though, maybe Sandy should call Brian Cashman about bullpen help …