That’s nothing when you consider Bay’s quagmire of a contract, which still has another guaranteed $35 million left over the next two seasons and a vesting option for 2014 worth $17 million. Not the kind of money anyone wants to be paying a .234 hitter that Terry Collins is now considering to bench in favor of Scott Hairston.

Remember when Bay appeared to have his season turned around? Well, he’s back in a 3-for-30 skid since his two-homer night July 5 at Dodger Stadium , and yes, those are singles. His problems only deepened yesterday, when Bay went 0-for-4 and stranded five in the Mets’ 8-5 loss to the Phillies.

– David Lennon, Newsday.

Yeah, it turns out we were kidding ourselves when we were squinting hard at Jason Bay and seeing how he might be coming out of the funk he’s been in since he signed with the Mets before last season. This is brutal. He still manages to get on base every now and then, and the Mets can carry his wholesale lack of power when they’ve got Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes in the lineup. But in these past few games with the club reduced to a star-free lineup full of pesky singles hitters, Bay’s inadequacies are more obvious.

Both David Wright and Jose Reyes appear set to return to the lineup later this week. With Ike Davis still out, it seems likely the Mets will shift Daniel Murphy to first base and use one of Justin Turner and Ruben Tejada at second base. That leaves Lucas Duda out of the mix.

But though Duda’s first 113 plate appearances this season haven’t been much to speak of, he’s a 25-year-old lefty hitter with a recent history of crushing Triple-A pitching, and a player that might contribute to the Mets in the future. If Bay were going right, he should be starting every day in the Mets’ outfield and the middle of their order; there’s still a lot more evidence that Jason Bay can be a capable Major League hitter than there is that Lucas Duda can.

As it is though, a case could be made that Duda should get playing time in left against right-handed pitching, against which Bay has been pretty much useless. Granted, the Mets aren’t paying Bay $16 million to occupy the short half of a platoon, but then that money is spent whether Bay provides any return on it or not, and the Mets might as well get about winning games the best way they can figure. The Mets’ priority should still be getting Bay on track, but since it doesn’t look like the current approach is working, they might as well try one that doesn’t involve him playing every day.

I guess I’m just sick of watching him ground out every damn time.