Jays could lose playoff stars
In back-to-back postseasons, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion hit the two biggest home runs Blue Jays fans had seen in a generation.
But after making baseball history in Toronto, both might be about to become history in Toronto.
One year after a six-game AL Championship Series loss to eventual champion Kansas City, the Blue Jays fell to World Series-bound Cleveland in five-games Wednesday. Now a winter of change is expected. Bautista and Encarnacion highlight a list of nine Toronto free agents, including six on this year’s playoff roster.
Largely unheralded when each arrived by trade — Bautista from Pittsburgh in 2008 and Encarnacion from Cincinnati in 2009 — the Dominican sluggers developed into All-Stars. The team evolved, too, from an also-ran playing before sparse crowds to a contender that led the American League in attendance, reinvigorating a national audience across Canada.
After Toronto ended a 22-year playoff drought with an AL East title last year, Bautista blasted the Blue Jays into the ALCS with a threerun homer to win Game 5 against Texas, punctuating his shot with a memorable bat flip.
This year it was Encarnacion’s turn, with a three-run drive in the 11th inning to beat Baltimore in the wildcard game.
The two homers are Toronto’s most indelible moments since Joe Carter’s World Series walk-off gave the Blue Jays a second straight title in 1993.
“They really helped put this team back on the map again, what they’ve accomplished,” manager John Gibbons said.
Nationals: All seven members of manager Dusty Baker’s major league coaching staff will return to the team next season, the team said.
Mariners: The team will bring back the entire coaching staff for 2017 after barely missing the playoffs.