Outfielder Jason Bay, who suffered through one of the most difficult seasons of his career in 2010 after leaving the Red Sox as a free agent to sign a four-year, $66 million deal with the Mets, made no excuses for his rough first year in New York in an interview with ESPN.com. Bay was limited to a career-low 95 games after suffering a concussion last summer. Prior to that, however, he suffered one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, hitting .259 with a .347 OBP, .402 slugging mark, .749 OPS and just six homers.

Bay declined to blame either his new home ballpark — CitiField in New York, a venue that has stifled offense in its three years — or the transition to a major media market.

“I just had a bad year. I was the first to admit it as I was living it, and I’ll be the first to admit it looking back on it,” Bay told ESPN.com. “For whatever reason, I never got in a rhythm at the plate, and I felt like I was swimming upstream all year trying to catch up. The next thing you know it’s July and you’re like, ‘Wow, I haven’t been able to piece anything together.’ The question is, what did you learn from it? I feel like I learned a lot.”

Bay said that he is healthy and pursuing a rigorous workout schedule this winter in hopes of resembling the player who, from 2005-09, averaged 31 homers and 103 RBI while hitting .279/.378/.515/.892.