Outfielder Signed a one-year contract for $7.5 million with the Mets.
After the Mets’ very unsuccessful season in 2009, former general manager Omar Minaya made the pursuit of a high-profiled free-agent left fielder his top priority. This ended with the Mets paying Jason Bay $66 million over four years to patrol left field.
So far, this has become one of the worst free-agent contracts given in Mets history. Bay has yet to eclipse 20 home runs and 80 RBI in a season as a Met. He was paid to hit home runs, drive in RBI and give David Wright better protection in the lineup. Instead, he has looked lost at the plate quite often, suffered a concussion that ended his 2010 season, and has endured the Citi Field boo birds.
Many of the more veteran Mets fans may have already begun to reminisce on other poor free agent signings that the Mets have made in their history. The Mets have even become known as a team that makes poor free agent decisions, which is unfortunate because many of these players simply declined, their poor performance having nothing to do with the team they played for.
When Moises Alou signed a one-year contract for $7.5 million with the Mets prior to the 2007 season, he was expected to provide a solid veteran presence and to help the Mets win another NL East title. However, despite the great numbers he put up when healthy, he was barely healthy for the two seasons he played, and as a result, his contract became worth a lot less than expected.
Alou batted .318 in the first month of the 2007 season, but in May, he tore a quadriceps muscle and missed the next three months of the season. During his absence that year, nine other players played in left field, and aside from defensive specialist Endy Chavez, none of the others were regular outfielders by any means. Alou finally returned in August and batted .345 upon his return, which included a 30-game hitting streak that set a new Mets record. It was basically that alone that led the Mets to pick up his option for 2008. For the 2007 season, Alou batted .341 with 13 home runs and 49 RBI. He also had a .524 slugging percentage and a .392 OBP.
If having Alou not play for a full season in 2007 was bad enough, keeping him around another year was even worse. In 2008, Alou ended up being limited to just 15 games and 49 at-bats, but he did hit .347 in that span. Nonetheless, Alou had hernia surgery in Spring Training and played for a few weeks in May before a calf strain brought him back to the disabled list. While rehabilitating in the Mets’ minor league system, Alou tore his right hamstring on July 9, which set him back further and ultimately cost him the rest of the season, and his career for that matter.
The fact that the Mets counted upon a 40-year-old outfielder (42 by the end of the 2008 season) to be one of their bigger offensive contributors for full seasons in 2007 and 2008, was one of the many reasons as to why former GM Omar Minaya was fired after the 2010 season. More reasons relating to Minaya’s firing will appear shortly.
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