On Jose Bautista, with whom he’s had “incredible” discussions toward a new contract – which Bautista described Monday as a case of a number he’s given to the club, and take it or leave it – Atkins put it this way: “I love being around the guy”.
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The 35-year-old outfielder is set to become a free agent after the 2016 season. Bautista is playing in his final season of a five-year/$65 million contract he signed in 2011, and is not to happy about the discount he has been playing for. “I know the business but they either meet it or it is what it is.” . “I think I’ll be better for it, for going through something like that”. “They asked me a question and I gave them an answer”.
Then came the front-office turnover in Toronto, as Anthopoulos left just as Mark Shapiro took over from Paul Beeston as president, leading to the hire of Ross Atkins as general manager.
It won’t be long before Jays fans find out if ownership believes that not pinching pennies leads to a better on-field product, which theoretically leads to more profits.
Jose Bautista #19 of the Toronto Blue Jays rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against Keone Kela #50 of the Texas Rangers in the sixth inning during game one of the American League Division Series at Rogers Centre on October 8, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“I’m not going to sit here and bargain for a couple of dollars”, he told reporters.
Jose Bautista must stay on the field the entire season if the Canadian franchise has any hopes of playoffs. Parra would get a $520,000, one-year contract if added to the 40-man roster and would have the chance to earn $900,000 in performance bonuses and $1.28 million in roster bonuses.
Atkins repeated multiple times he couldn’t comment on any pending negotiations, including a trade rumour that began late Monday night that Toronto had dealt outfielder Michael Saunders to the Los Angeles Angels in a three-team deal also involving the Cincinnati Reds. “I don’t think there should be any negotiation”.
Saunders was at the Blue Jays’ facility on Tuesday.
In reference to Bautista’s age, Atkins did say that the player is a rarity because of his superb physical conditioning. “It’s just a matter of, are they willing to go there?”
Jose Bautista, possibly demonstrating how large he’d like his next contract to be.
“I want to be that guy”. That’s not to say it was a hometown discount though. “They asked me about two weeks ago, and I told them, and that’s it. There’s no negotiation”.
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This wouldn’t be the first time that a team leaked exorbitant contract amount to make the player it is negotiating with look unreasonable.
