Should Toronto Blue Jays Extend Qualifying Offers to Bautista and Encarnacion?
By Jason Evans
As the Toronto Blue Jays hit the ALCS, two of their biggest offensive threats are about to become free agents.
The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping their upcoming trip to the ALCS goes a lot better than last season’s. After an exciting extra-inning win to earn a sweep against the AL’s number-one seed Texas Rangers, the Blue Jays await their next opponent.
While they wait, why not speculate about the offseason? The Jays have a ton of pending free agents, including two of the biggest bats to hit the market in Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. The question looms, should they extend a qualifying offer to the two sluggers?
The qualifying offer is set to be $16.7 million this offseason. However, the CBA is set to expire after the offseason and even though it’s very possible the new CBA is completed shortly after the postseason ends, we have to see what the qualifying process is.
If there is one, it’s an absolute no-brainer to give one to Encarnacion. Since 2013, he’s seventh among first baseman in WAR, first in homers, first in RBI and fifth in wRC+. Encarnacion will be 34 in the offseason, so if he takes the QO, you get him for a year, probably for less than would he would get on the open market and go from there.
Bautista is a bit trickier in that if he received a QO, he just might take it to try to re-establish his value and hit the market after 2017.
Bautista will turn 36 later this month. His batting average has declined from .286 two years ago to .234 this year. He had his lowest homer and RBI output since 2012 and battled injuries. His 1.5 WAR and his 122 wRC+ are his lowest since 2009.
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The Jays should offer it to both, assuming the system remains in play. If they were to accept, having both on one-year deals would be good value for the club. If one or both leave, then you can recoup the draft pick and try to add a prospect to a system that could use some.