With
Free Agency underway, The Blue Jays have already lost a big chunk of the teams'
s longest serving players. Bautista now being one of the longest serving
members on the team. With free agency just getting under way, The
Jays have already made a huge splash by signing Canadian born catcher Russell
Martin. Martin will help The Jays both offensively and defensively. Last year Martin had career highs in
almost every offensive category and had a very good year behind the plate,
throwing runners out and calling a good game for his pitchers. The only down
side to the Martin signing is that now last years starting catcher, Dioner
Navarro has requested a trade. Last year Navarro was a fan favourite and one of
the more clutch hitters for the Jays, not to mention his solid defense behind
the plate. Another factor to
whether Jose will want to stay in Toronto, is what teammate and friend Melky
Cabrera does in free agency. By the sounds of it sounds as if any teams have offered
Cabrera anything significant enough to report. Cabrera has been quoted saying
that he wants to stay in Toronto, but has rejected their qualifying offer. I feel that if The Jays are willing to
pay enough, that Melky will stay in Toronto for an extended amount of time.
Hopefully if The Jays do sign Cabrera, they will have enough money to sign
left-handed reliever Andrew Miller, who helped The Baltimore Orioles with their
playoff push.
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| Jose (Joey Bats) Bautista |
The
last factor is how The Blue Jays do in the upcoming season. They will struggle
because of how many young players they have, but hopefully players like Bautista,
Encarnacion, Lawrie, Reyes and Martin with the help of a few new comers can help
lead The Jays into the playoffs.
Which would be the first time in Bautista’s career with The Jays.
Hopefully this would be enough to at least keep this thought out of Jose’s
mind.
