Last Monday, NESN baseball analyst Peter Gammons first reported on Red Sox Hot Stove that the Sox and Bay had agreed to a four-year deal, but that a disagreement about the diagnosis of Bay’s knee issues caused the deal to fall apart.
“That is just one-tenth of the story,” Bay told WEEI.
According to WEEI, Bay initially declined Boston’s four-year, $60-million deal, but then had a change of heart after the All-Star break and told his agent, Joe Urbon, that he wanted to accept the offer.
Urbon then notified Theo Epstein and flew to Boston for Bay’s physical — something every major league player must go through before signing a guaranteed contract. That evening, the article says, the Red Sox told Bay’s camp that their medical team had concluded that the condition of Bay’s knees and shoulders had put the deal in danger. After meeting with Boston’s ownership, Epstein called Urbon a few days later and told him the deal was off.
The Red Sox then made a new offer with a few major changes, according to Bay’s account. The deal was still worth $15 million per year, but now the final two years were contingent on Bay’s health, and Bay would be required to have knee surgery following the 2009 season.
“I was shocked, to say the least, that I was being told to have knee surgery in order to get the contract, particularly since I wasn’t hurt,” Bay said in the WEEI interview.
Bay and Urbon decided to seek a second opinion in August, the article said. As they expected, that physician told them there was no reason to be concerned about Bay’s health. When Bay and Urbon told the Red Sox about those findings in October, the two parties agreed to get a third opinion from an independent doctor. That doctor also shot down Boston’s findings, writing that Bay “has an excellent future” and would be able “to continue to play at a high level at his position,” according to WEEI.
At the winter meetings in Indianapolis, Epstein made Bay a new offer of three years guaranteed, a fourth year contingent on Bay’s health and no requirement of knee surgery, the article said. Bay and Urbon rejected the offer, believing they deserved a contract with no medical stipulations, something they eventually received from the New York Mets.
As Nick Cafardo points out on Boston.com, though, the Red Sox had no reason to renege on those stipulations. Boston has demanded similar contract clauses at least twice before when team doctor Thomas Gill had concerns about players’ pre-existing conditions.
J.D. Drew’s contract, for example, allows the Red Sox to terminate it after the 2010 season if Drew spends more than 35 days on the DL with a shoulder injury he’s experienced before. This offseason, John Lackey agreed to a contract that allows Boston to pay him the league minimum in his sixth season if he needs elbow surgery at any point during the next five years.
Gill also had concerns about Pedro Martinez’s shoulder when he became a free agent after the 2004 season, the article said. That led to Boston’s decision not to sign him to a long-term deal. Martinez wound up signing a four-year, $53 million deal with a team that seemingly wasn’t as apprehensive about his health. Sure enough, though, Martinez began experiencing major shoulder issues 1 1/2 seasons into his stint with that new team.
Oh, by the way, that team was the Mets.
