The Bay Extension

The Pirates and Bay are talking about a 5-year extension, which would extend past his arbitration years and into his first free-agency eligible year. It is, of course, good news to hear that they're serious about keeping him, but it does raise at least some questions (voiced by Charlie). If Bay's healthy and keeps getting better, yeah it's a fantastic move on our part. If he's not healthy, well, that's how we got where we were in 2001. Paying $57 million for 100 losses. The best thing to do is probably lock him up for the arbitration years, then have team options for every year we can get after that. That way if he does turn into the MVP-type we're all hoping for we have him locked up (which is hopefully the case) and if he crashes and burns we're not on the hook for anything past his arbitration years. I know it sounds pessimistic, but when you're on a budget like we are you've really gotta be careful.