Jose Bautista: Destined To Be The Last Man Standing
You know you are really in trouble as a free agent when a General Manager says this about you, “We told [Bautista’s] agent that we are not interested because our fans don’t like him,” Duquette said on Sportsnet Radio 590 The Fan on Wednesday morning. “Our fans don’t like Jose Bautista, with good reason.”. That’s Dan Duquette of the Baltimore Orioles as reported by ESPN .
That’s a first in my book and Duquette might be hearing from Joe Torre and MLB soon. And I don’t know about you, but I missed the poll that Duquette conducted with Oriole fans to reach that conclusion, but the man speaks volumes about the difficulty Bautista is having finding a job for next season. And he just might be the last man standing at a time when he doesn’t want to be…
Jose Bautista And Old Man Time
Jose Bautista will play the 2017 season at 36 years of age. He played in only 116 games last season managing only 22 home runs and 69 RBI. Injuries held him down, but that’s what happens when you get “old” in baseball speak. And that’s basically the problem Bautista is facing.
Jose Bautista is working the present from the past. Here’s Bautista earlier this year according to fangraphs, “On Monday, meeting with media on the first day of spring training, Bautista said the five-year, $65-million contract he signed with Toronto in 2011 has amounted to a “five-year hometown discount.”
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Except it doesn’t work that way. So while Jose Bautista feels he is “owed” by the Blue Jays, they don’t see it that way. A contract is a contract. Because if Jose Bautista averaged 10 home runs and 40 RBI over the course of the contract he just completed, he would expect every penny owed to him to be paid by the Blue Jays.
Teams other than the Blue Jays, who just recently reopened talks with the Bautista camp, look at him and say, “Wait a minute here, this guy wants $100 million for four years in a deal that won’t expire until he’s 40? Why should we do that?” Especially when there’s still a plethora of outfielders out there who are younger and less expensive.
All of this points to the Blue Jays. A few days ago, they took their $80 million offer to Edwin Encarncion off the table, and they have done little to improve their team while the Red Sox and Yankees have been active. So Jose Bautista sits there as nothing more than a face saving move to recapture at least part of the team that contended last season.
Jose Bautista The Odd Man Out
Which in turn points to Jose Bautista signing a one year contract for between 8-10 million dollars (probably with the Blue Jays) and hitting the reset button to start the process all over again with an eye to being a free agent again next year. If he can put up some serious numbers, he’ll have another shot at a final big payday, though now it would be at the age of 37.
Sometimes, this is what happens. A player gets squeezed out by circumstances that pretty much are beyond his control. He miscalculates the market for his services, puts a big number out there, finds there are no takers , has a hissy fit, and then descends back to reality. Welcome to the world of Jose Bautista.