Bay Rejects Boston’s Latest Offer

By KC Downey in Featured, Red Sox, Top Story ⋅ December 13, 2009 at 1:38am ⋅ Post a comment

Jason Bay (Photo from http://vickmark.com)

It’s looking more and more likely that Jason Bay will not be roaming left field for the Red Sox in 2010.

“We don’t agree with their evaluation of the player,” agent Joe Urbon told Foxsports.com’s Ken Rosenthal. “Frankly, we have other offers on the table that are of greater interest to Jason.”

Bay reportedly rejected the latest offer from the Sox, which was a revised version of the four-year, $60 million deal they offered during the season. A source told ESPN.com’s Gordon Edes that the contract was re-structured in a way that favored Bay, but it still was not enough.

The source also said the Sox will not add a fifth year to the deal, which is reportedly what the Mets (who offered Bay a four-year deal between $60 and $65 million) are considering. The Mariners are also interested in Bay, but reportedly aren’t willing to offer him a fifth year either.

Bay’s agent appears frustrated with the Sox, who refuse to budge on their initial offer. As a result, Bay and his agent will not wait, and are ready to move on from the Red Sox.

“We’ve been talking with [the Red Sox] for 10 months,” Urbon told the Boston Globe. “We’ve got to a point where based on the offers we’ve received from other clubs, we needed to make it clear where we stand, and they’ve made it clear where they stand. If they want to re-engage at some point in this process but we’re not going to wait. We can’t wait. We have to go at the pace of the other clubs. I’m sure the Red Sox will have other avenues that they will pursue or they are pursuing.”

The Sox will probably instead turn their attention to free agent outfielder Matt Holliday, who is represented by super agent Scott Boras. So, don’t expect the Sox pursue him aggressively. Instead, they’ll let the market come to them.

The Sox are also in on free agent third baseman Adrian Beltre, who is also represented by Boras. Boy, it’s going to be a long offseason for Theo Epstein and co.