Mike Francesa reported on WFAN that the Mets will announce sometime early next week that they have signed Jason Bay, pending a physical. No terms were reported.
Added by Mark: After hinting that he would have a "big" update today, Mike Francesa of WFAN says the Mets and Jason Bay are close to agreeing to a deal, with a physical the only remaining hurdle. Its tough to know just how Mike was able to keep this info so tightly under wraps since last night without worrying it might leak out, so look for confirmation elsewhere. He says to expect an official announcement sometime after the weekend. There was no info on the financials provided.
2:43pm by Eric: Joel Sherman tweets that the contract is for four years and $66 million and that it contains an "easy vest for 5th year". The fifth year could push this deal from "possibly worth the money" to "oh jebus, no".
3:10pm by Eric: I'm trying to figure out why Omar Minaya has such a detestable affinity for vesting options these days. Maybe they convince the less attentive that a deal isn't so bad, while still caving to the player's demands. "Look, it's only a four-year deal! We didn't go to five years like Bay was asking! I'm a terrific negotiator!" Meanwhile, the vesting part of the option is so easily attainable as to make it tantamount to a guaranteed extra year. We don't yet know what the requirements for the option to vest are, but we can reasonably guess that they will be based on games played or plate appearances, in which case the option year only differs from a guaranteed year if Bay is injured enough to fall short of those (presumably light) requirements.