Bay, Bell, Buck Bingo.

Twitter has been abuzz the last two days over the news that a deal was on the table before the deadline that would have sent Jason Bay to Miami in exchange for Heath Bell and John Buck. Obviously this deal did not happen and we don't know why but I have to assume the Marlins backed out because if it was the Mets they have completely lost their collective baseball minds.

This is literally the best deal I have ever heard of. The fact that anyone would take Jason Bay from us and offer even the slightest value is simply amazing. One thing that I think is clear is that Jason Bay has nothing positive to offer the team any longer. His simple presence in the lineup makes the team inherently worse, to the tune of a WPA of -1.66 so far, good for the bottom ten in the Majors. Jason Bay coming to bat has come to mean a sure out. Just cutting him from the team would make the team better.

Now how about Bell and Buck? Neither of them are very good either. But the big difference is that they can do something. Buck has similar offensive numbers to Bay but at least he is a Catcher and a fairly good one. Having a veteran catcher on the staff to platoon with Thole who hits as well as Bay is more useful than Bay hitting and playing the outfield. How about Bell? Bell is pretty atrocious this year but he is at least worth a gamble. He posted a 5.57 ERA this year, prior to that he has sub 3 ERA in 4 of his last 5 seasons and was good for 40+ saves each year he closed. Now what you rather take a chance on? That an elite level reliever can recover from a bad half season and be a valuable member of a team or that a once elite player who has posted three bad seasons in a row will bounce back. The smart money is Bell. We are spending roughly the same amount of money either way, let's at least have some upside.