FINAL SWING
As the Blue Jays season begins winding down, this gives you a chance to see Jose Bautista — perhaps for the final time — play in a Toronto uniform. Here are the highlights from the Blue Birds’ last 12 games of the year
On Sunday in Minnesota, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons gave Jose Bautista a day off from the field, sliding the veteran into the designated hitter slot of his lineup card.
With no game on Monday, there was further opportunity for Bautista to rest up for what could be an emotional week for a superstar who has been the face of the franchise for the better part of a decade.
The expectation, then, is that Jays fans will see plenty of one of the team’s all-time players in the final home stand of this lost 2017 season. It will almost certainly be his final six Rogers Centre appearances in the uniform that helped define his career and put Toronto back on the Major League Baseball map.
Clearly, the season hasn’t gone anywhere near the way Bautista figured it would, both personally and for the team. It’s a claim that can be made by many of his neighbours in the Jays clubhouse, however.
But a three-game series against the Royals, which begins Tuesday, followed by three against the Yankees on the weekend, offers the chance for a prolonged so-long to Joey Bats.
In the big picture, Bautista’s record and impact as a Jay has been significant, one of the most notable performers in franchise history. He was at the centre of the team that went to back-to-back ALCS championships and a big reason for the rise to unprecedented popularity from coast to coast.
Bautista’s personality and performance has helped owner Rogers Communications earn boatloads of cash and he has been the emotional and offensive leader of a team that thrived on his attitude and personality.
Anything less than a positive send-off would do the man an injustice and the belief here is that Jays fans have become sophisticated enough to recognize as much.
And for Bautista, you can bet he’d like to offer something memorable from a mostly forgettable return on his one-year, $18 million US contract.
Of late, it has been mostly grim for the 36-year-old native of the Dominican Republic. A three-hit effort on Saturday in Minnesota ended an 0-for-17 skid at the plate and he’ll take a .207 batting average to his Rogers Centre farewell. In the four-game series in Minnesota, Twins pitchers repeatedly walked Justin Smoak to get to Bautista’s bat.
At some point during his final home stand, it’s likely that Bautista will establish a dubious club record for single-season strikeouts. He’s currently at 157, two shy of the mark jointly held by Jose Canseco and Kelly Johnson.
But Bautista deserves to be remembered for more than a disappointing season, one in which he finally began to show his age.
Since the 2010 season, Bautista has hit 20 or more home runs every year, topping 35 on four occasions. The 54 he belted in 2010 are seven more than any Toronto player has hit in a season. And the 40 he hit just two years ago helped ride the Jays to the ALCS.
And now it’s down to his final dozen games as a Jay, with six opportunities for Toronto fans to remember and celebrate the good times he brought with him.
Other items to look for in the final six-pack of games at the Rogers Centre until the Yankees open up the 2018 season on March 29:
Spectacular. There’s no other word to describe Josh Donaldson’s series in Minnesota, one that included five runs, including a pair each on Saturday and Sunday. The 481foot bomb on Sunday was one of the most prodigious blasts in his career and highlighted the torrid streak he has been on since the all-star break.
Donaldson will keep the rumour meter high during the off-season, given free agency is a year away. Trade him? Hike the cable and cell bills to keep him for a long-term deal? It will be an ongoing story for awhile, but for now, Donaldson is in good health, in sensational form and is a treat to watch every time he comes up to the plate.
Carlos Ramirez. The September call-up is sure to get the call out of the bullpen on a couple of occasions during the home stand with opportunity to continue what has truly been a remarkable rookie season.
In his first 10 MLB innings, the right-hander has given up just one hit with nine strikeouts among the 30 batters he’s faced. Furthermore, Ramirez has not allowed an earned run over 47.2 innings of work this season across AA, AAA and MLB action. “It’s unbelievable,” Jays starter Brett Anderson said. “You don’t want to talk about it too much (to avoid jinxing him), but with what he’s done and not too far removed from being a position player, and coming up here and throwing zeros in the big league … it’s fun to watch.
“He’s deceptive. He’s long and lanky and hides the ball well, which is something you can’t teach but comes naturally to him.”
A far cry from the past two Septembers, there’s a reasonable chance the Jays could be mathematically eliminated by the end of the home stand. With a record of 70-80, the Jays were 8½ games behind the Twins for the second AL wild card.
Say it isn’t Joe. Would-be starter Joe Biagini is likely to get a start on the home stand, a last ditch effort to prove his worth as a starter in a bigleague game. Safe to say he took a major start backward in that regard on Sunday when he was rocked hard by the Twins before being yanked after 1.1 innings.
Still with the rotation, Marcus Stroman will have an opportunity to get the elusive 12th win, which would be a career high.