Bautista back in Toronto as a Met

TORONTO • Joe Biagini’s first interaction with Jose Bautista gave him two simultaneous perspectives of the former Blue Jays slugger.

Biagini was in the weight room at Toronto’s spring training facility in 2016 after joining the team as a Rule 5 draft pick a few months earlier. Bautista was stretching nearby while TVs in the gym showed MLB’s top plays from the previous season.

“We were all watching and his bat flip was No. 1,” Biagini said, referencing Bautista’s most significant homer of his career — a threerun shot that gave Toronto the lead, and an eventual win, over the Texas Rangers in Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series.

“It was surreal to watch him watch himself do that. I’d never really been in that situation before, and I was in awe just being there.

“Everyone was like: ‘what were you thinking when you threw the bat?’ And he was like: ‘I don’t know, I was excited. It was a big home run.’ So it was fun to see him in that moment.”

Bautista, now with the New York Mets, will return to Rogers Centre Tuesday for the first time since parting ways with the Blue Jays as a free agent at the end of last season.

The Jays will be looking to rebound Tuesday after losing 3-2 in the 10th inning to the Detroit Tigers on Monday.

Bautista, 37, spent 10 years in Toronto, developing from a journeyman outfielder to one of baseball’s top power hitters.

He played 1,235 regular-season games as a Jay, hitting 288 homers and driving in 776 runs while helping raise Toronto back to baseball relevance over the last few years.

For all his success in Toronto, Bautista struggled in 2017, batting just .203 through 157 games, and the Blue Jays declined the team option on his contract for this year.

Catcher Russell Martin said he expects Blue Jays fans to show their appreciation for Bautista during the two-game series this week.