Bautista humbled but not hurt
Slugger aims for Blue Jays revival after down 2016
DUNEDIN, FLA. Jose Bautista leaned back against the wall in front of his Toronto Blue Jays locker, allowing memories and emotions to come forth.
Four months ago, he cleaned out his Blue Jays locker at Rogers Centre, having no idea whether he’d ever be back.
He packed up his car and started driving. He drove on Queen Elizabeth Way, through Mississauga, past Hamilton, through Niagara Falls, over the Canadian border, into Buffalo. He fought back tears during the five- hour drive, finally arriving at his wife’s relatives’ home in Pennsylvania.
“It was emotional, very emotional,” Bautista tells USA TODAY Sports. “You’re leaving the city you love, and once you cross the border, the memories come back. A lot of thoughts creep into your head. You get very sentimental, and you’re hit with so many emotions. It was emotional after the last out. It was emotional in the dugout. It was emotional saying goodbye to everybody.”
Yet in what evolved into the strangest free agent odyssey of the winter, Bautista, 36, is back with the Blue Jays, but only on a one- year, $ 18.5 million deal.
Reports of a five- year, $ 150 million asking price early in the year, the expectation he would receive at least $ 100 million and the anticipation of a fierce bidding war among teams all went poof.
The Jays, who gave him a $ 17.2 million qualifying offer simply to gain a firstround draft pick when he signed elsewhere, were as stunned as anyone when he was still unemployed in mid- January — even after Bautista batted .234 with 22 home runs in an injury- plagued walk year.
That, along with a mostly toxic market for right- handed power hitters, enabled Toronto to bring him back at a relative bargain — he’ll make $ 18 million this year with a $ 17 million mutual option in 2018 that includes a $ 500,000 buyout and a $ 20 million vesting option in 2019 if he plays 300 games in 2017 and 2018. The total deal would max out at $ 55 million, or half the guaranteed $ 110 million over four years outfielder Yoenis Cespedes got from the New York Mets.
“It was confusing and it was tough at times, but you can’t take it personally,” Bautista says. “You can’t feel like it’s necessarily a direct vendetta against you or a group. I know markets have their ups and downs, but I can’t explain what happened to me. ... It’s hard to complain when you’re playing the sport you love and you’re making a lot of money.”
Bautista, a six- time All- Star who has finished in the top 10 in the MVP race four times since 2010, says he won’t carry a grudge into the season. He’s not angry at the Blue Jays. He’s not angry at every team that passed on him.
It’s this pride, this confidence, that has Bautista’s teammates thinking there might be a whole lot of teams that could wind up paying the price for passing him up this offseason.
“I know the competitor in him. I have a great feeling that he’s going to have a real-
ly nice bounce- back season,” Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson says. “And ultimately, he’s going to make other people wish they had taken a chance on him.”
Bautista thinks if he’s healthy, he’ll again be one of the most feared hitters in the game. He has averaged 43 homers and 111 RBI in his last four full, healthy seasons. He dropped off dramatically last year when he played in 116 games. He also was hurt by the qualifying offer; under the new collective bargaining agreement, he will be an unrestricted free agent next winter.
“Injuries are part of the game, especially when you play hard and leave it out there every single day,” says Bautista, who’ll turn 37 in October. “You can’t blame people for making what they believe is a safe bet, looking at historical data. It doesn’t mean that is going to be the same thing. The average life span 200 years ago is much shorter than it is now, too. Look at the development of medicine and training.
“I see players like Tom Brady do decent. Drew Brees. Aaron Rodgers. Jaromir Jagr. They definitely are not the norm, but if you do things right over the course of your career, you can have longevity and still be one of those elite players. There’s no reason I can’t do the same.”
This will be a unique season for Bautista. He still has trouble envisioning former teammate Edwin Encarnacion sauntering into Rogers Centre wearing a Cleveland Indians uniform. The common belief was that Encarnacion would be back and Bautista would be gone.
“If you ask me, I’d like to stay here the rest of my career,” Bautista says. “You grow to love a place and build relationships over time, and that’s hard to walk away from. I don’t think you can just leave for less. If you are going to switch teams, it has to be for a tangible added benefit. You don’t say I’m going to walk away from anywhere just for a couple more bucks.
“Really, this is where I want to be as long as they’ll have me. At the end of the day, you play only where you are wanted.”