NEW YORK — The tumultuous Mets tenure of Jason Bay, a three-year span riddled with injuries and marred by ineffectiveness, ended with a whimper Wednesday afternoon. The team bought out the $21 million remaining on his contract and cut him loose as an unconditional free agent.

The club’s preferred euphemism, that the two sides “agree to part ways,” papered over the obvious conclusion. Bay fell far short of the heights promised by the four-year, $66 million contract he signed with the team heading into the 2010 season. The Mets found little value for him either in the field or on the trade market.

General manager Sandy Alderson praised Bay’s work ethic in a prepared statement but explained, “the results weren’t there, and we are in a results-oriented business.”

The New York Post first reported the amount of the buyout: Bay is owed $16 million in salary for 2013, a $3 million buyout for the team's 2014 option and $2 million remaining from his signing bonus. As the season wound down, one team official indicated there was the possibility of a "Bonilla-type" deal to buy out Bay's contract, a reference to the team's continuing deferential payments to former outfielder Bobby Bonilla through 2036.

The deferred payments to Bay will not last nearly as long, according to a person familiar with the arrangement who requested anonymity because the team didn't disclose financial details.

The decision to release Bay appears to have taken shape quickly. The team entered the offseason willing to use him as a platoon outfielder in 2013. They also need cash as they negotiate contract extensions with third baseman David Wright and pitcher R.A. Dickey. With some of Bay’s buyout deferred, Mets officials hope they have more to spend. Thus Bay was jettisoned.

“I was as surprised as anyone,” manager Terry Collins said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Alderson followed a precedent he set before the 2011 season, when the team swallowed $18 million in salary before cutting Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo. All three players are vestiges of the Omar Minaya regime. The team still owes Johan Santana $31 million for this coming season.



Bay, 34, intends to keep playing, even after suffering through the worst season of his career. He hit .156 with a miserable .536 on-base plus slugging percentage. Collins benched him for most of the second half.

“I have no regrets in signing with the Mets, other than that I wasn’t able to play to the level that the team, the fans and I all expected and that we weren’t able to win more games,” Bay said. “I move on with nothing but an appreciation for the organization and its fans and best wishes to all my teammates there.”

As a three-time All-Star with Pittsburgh and Boston, he averaged 30 homers a season. During the past three seasons, he averaged nine. His .687 on-base plus slugging percentage as a Met was 161 points below his career average.

For Bay, the downward spiral commenced on July 23, 2010. That day at Dodger Stadium, he crashed face-first into the left-field wall to snatch a drive off Jamey Carroll's bat. The force of the blow knocked him senseless — he would swear later his head did not connect with the fence. As he lay prone in the grass, a teammate asked what hurt.

"I don't know yet," Bay replied.

Doctors diagnosed a concussion three days later. He missed the rest of the season. A strained rib-cage muscle slowed him in 201l. A broken rib cost him 40 games the next June. Soon after his return, he concussed himself once more, skidding into an outfield wall on a diving fielding attempt.

The player the Mets paid for never appeared. In September, Collins blamed Bay’s struggles on the head injuries. “I just think that those concussions take an effect on guys,” Collins said.

As Bay’s playing time evaporated this summer, his presence in the clubhouse shrank. He could often be found by his locker, clad in a hoodie, fiddling with an iPad. He did not want to be considered a distraction. He ached for at-bats, but never questioned Collins’ judgment.

“My only hope,” Collins said, “is that Jason has some peace of mind now.”

Andy McCullough: amccullough@starledger.com; twitter.com/McCulloughSL