Jon Jay makes a sliding catch along the outfield wall in the ninth inning. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
The St. Louis Cardinals and outfielder Jon Jay agreed on a two-year contract through 2016, avoiding salary arbitration, the team announced Monday.
Jay, 29, hit team-best .303 with three homers and 46 RBI last season. He fell just 34 plate appearances shy of qualifying among the league batting leaders. In the postseason, he hit .483, which was the second-highest single-season postseason batting average in league history.
Drafted by the Cardinals in 2006, the left-handed hitting Jay owns a .295 career batting average over the last five seasons, ranking eighth among all major league outfielders in that time span. He has 28 career homers and 217 RBI, while scoring 300 runs in 678 games, all with the Cardinals.
Jay was the last of the Cardinals arbitration-eligible players who were unsigned.