In his article, Why Jason Bay makes the Red Sox a better team, Alex Eisenberg from Hardball Times makes the argument that Jason Bay will help the Red Sox in the long term.
Given Bay’s age (29, compared to Manny’s 36), I’d have to agree.
Bay had an off year last year for Pittsburgh (21 HR, .247) but seemed to get out of his funk this season. For Pittsburgh this season, he hit .290 and already exceeded last year’s homerun total.
He seems to like playing for Boston. In 5 games, he’s 9 for 21 with 6 rbis and 8 runs. Playing his familiar position of left field, Boston is batting him 6th in the lineup which suits him well.