Jose Bautista has a history as one of the league’s best hitters. Now with a universal DH rule imminent, could he have a spot on an MLB team again?
It is long overdue, but the potential of a universal DH seems to finally be coming to fruition. There have been lots of talks about which National League teams would benefit most from this transition, but what about MLB players, specifically long-time power hitter, Jose Bautista?
It seems that baseball is beginning to trend in the direction of other sports, in promoting more offense. Even though it can be fun to watch pitchers like Bartolo Colon or Madison Bumgarner take a swing and hit it over the wall, pitchers are just simply not good hitters historically.
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Baseball purists are going to hate me for saying this, but I’ve always found it a little odd how the National League and American League had different rules in regards to lineup construction. The fact that a pitcher would sometimes have to hit, simply based on what ballpark he was playing in that night, was always a little peculiar to me.
This should allow for a better overall product and should be the root behind players getting paid who may have lost their fielding touch, but still remain productive at the plate. One guy who falls into that category, is six-time all-star, Jose Bautista.
Bautista was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays towards the end of the 2008 season and stayed there through 2017. He was one of the main offensive producers for a team that made back-to-back ALCS appearances. Often slotted between Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion, they formed one of the best hitting trio’s baseball fans have ever seen.
Bautista has racked up three silver slugger awards during his tenure with the Blue Jays and finished top 10 in MVP on four separate occasions. But he’ll forever be remembered for his theatrics against the Texas Rangers in game five of the ALDS.
One of the most intense games I have watched in recent history, which saw Jose Bautista hit the go-ahead home run in the bottom of the seventh, after three consecutive errors from the Rangers, which should have ended the inning.
Bautista got his shot and launched not only the ball but his bat to the moon. A sequence that will forever be loved by Blue Jay fans, hated by Ranger fans, and looked at with varying opinions from others.
After a poor ending to his Blue Jays tenure, Toronto decided to decline Bautista’s 2018 option, making him a free agent. The 2018 season saw Bautista bounce around from the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies, struggling to find a new home.
It wasn’t much of a surprise to see Bautista left off a roster for the 2019 season. His fielding, which was never overly his specialty, despite his cannon of an arm, had basically vanished, and his hitting wasn’t near the level it used to be.
With only half of the league in need of a designated hitter, the only position which seemed plausible for Bautista at this point, he didn’t have much of a choice but to watch the season from his couch.
Just a couple of months ago, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that Jose Bautista was looking to make a return as a pitcher.
After never throwing a pitch in an MLB game, this news came as quite the surprise. Bautista always had a strong arm, that was never the problem, but gunning a runner out at the plate, and dropping a breaking ball in the zone on a 1-2 count, are two completely different things.
Former teammate, Marcus Stroman, who is a fantastic pitcher himself, had high praise for Bautista when the news about him wanting to pitch surfaced, claiming that he could pitch in a big-league bullpen.
This now becomes intriguing. If every team is in need of a designated hitter, the only position that makes sense for Bautista, but he’s looking to come in as a pitcher, do we have another Shohei Ohtani on our hands?
Obviously I, nor anyone else would be expecting Bautista to pitch, let alone even hit as well as Ohtani, but it could be an interesting option for teams to look into it.
If Stroman is telling the truth, and Bautista can pitch in a big-league bullpen, and he can hit slightly better than .203/.348/.378, which are his hitting splits in his 2018 season, then there would be 30 teams in need of his service.
Relief pitching is something that every team desires, and it’s been claimed and known for a long time, that the bullpen is what wins you playoff games. You have to be able to hold a lead or prevent offensive production when trailing if you expect to compete amongst the best of the best.
Obviously, this isn’t me saying that Jose Bautista is going to jaunt into a bullpen and be Josh Hader, or Kirby Yates, but every team needs inning eaters. On top of that, if it is possible to sign a guy who can be productive at the plate on his off-days, then that is a good use of a single roster spot.
When only 15 teams needed a designated hitter, and news had not broke of Bautista being a pitcher, his services were not sought-out. Now that 30 teams need at-bats from guys who don’t have to field, and it is rumored that Bautista can pitch in a big-league bullpen, it may be a different story.
There will obviously have to be proof of Bautista’s abilities before we see him in a big-league uniform again. But, if all the rumors deem truthful, then we could be seeing Jose Bautista in the major league’s with a peculiar, yet important role.