Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Breakout season gives Blue Jays dilemma
Jose Bautista is closing in on the 50-homer plateau, but his future with the Blue Jays remains a question mark. (DARREN CALABRESE / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES)
TORONTO -- As the numbers have grown, so has the quandary.
Jose Bautista, one swing away from becoming just the 26th major-leaguer to reach the 50-homer plateau, is nearing the end of one of the best offensive seasons ever by a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. Yet the bigger his year gets, the more complicated it has made one of the biggest questions facing the club this winter.
Exactly how much stock should be placed in Bautista's record-breaking breakout?
His track record says not much. Baseball history tends to agree. And the safe bet is to dismiss the more than three-fold increase in home runs as a fluke.
But then it's also possible that his performance isn't an anomaly. Maybe the Blue Jays stumbled into one of the game's elite sluggers through a waiver-wire claim from a team eager to discard him. And maybe all he needed was the right instruction, opportunity and environment.
Franchises, particularly ones on a budget, can be made or broken by such calls. The US$126-million, seven-year contract handed out to Vernon Wells in the winter of 2006 looked like a great move at the time, but no team would do that deal now. The $86 million he's due over the next four years ties up a significant portion of the team's payroll.
And Wells had a strong track record of success. The same can't be said of Bautista, who went into the 2010 season with a career high of 16 homers, established in 400 at-bats back in 2006, a benchmark he hadn't matched again until this year.
So the Blue Jays have some deep thinking to do with regards to Bautista, whose $2.4-million salary will likely rise to the $6-$8 million range in his final year of arbitration eligibility. He can then become a free agent after the 2011 season.
This is what we know so far.
Bautista, a dapper and articulate 29-year-old whose laid back demeanour belies an intense competitiveness beneath the surface, was raised in a middle-class neighbourhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
He grew up watching American TV shows and playing baseball, seeing himself as a centre-field, leadoff-hitter type. Unsigned as a teenager, he ended up attending Chipola Junior College in the Florida panhandle.
"Where I came from, most people follow their family's footsteps, go to school, stay in the family business, live a regular life," he said in a recent interview. "It's not part of that class in society to have their kids play baseball with the goal of becoming a professional.
"I was doing it with a dual purpose. I loved the game, so I wanted to play, and even though I was from the middle class, a college education was very expensive. So I knew I could find a way to pay my way through college if I became good enough."
Blessed with tremendous raw power and athleticism, he eventually became good enough to go pro and was chosen in the 20th round of the 2000 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had what scouts like to call projectability, but he struggled to fully capitalize on his natural talents.
In the winter of 2003, after Bautista missed most of the season with a broken hand suffered swiping at a dugout garbage can while with single-A, he was left unprotected for the Rule 5 draft and was taken by Baltimore. It was one of five organizations he belonged to before the Pirates gave up on him a second time and he was claimed on waivers Aug. 21, 2008 by the Blue Jays.
It was the next summer that he had an epiphany in the mechanics of his swing, through the tutelage of hitting coach Dwayne Murphy and manager Cito Gaston, that turned his career around.
This season he has 114 RBIs, 100 runs scored, 95 walks, a .262 batting average and a .382 on-base percentage to go with his 49 homers, and will receive some consideration for American League MVP.
A long-term deal this winter is only likely to happen if it mitigates risk for the Blue Jays. Otherwise, they may very well let Bautista's play in 2011 answer the question before making their decision. But by then, the price may have gone up dramatically.
Two weeks remain before the cheering ends. Then the challenge looms.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 21, 2010 C2
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October 14, 2010
Fall meeting of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Assoc - Manitoba Chapter
Following a short meeting, Shirlee Anne Smith, a member of the “LIVING With Hearing Loss” program will speak on the topic “Living in a Noisy World”. There will be refreshments and door prizes. Everyone is ...
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