It was such a difficult decision because no one had ever seen something like this before. There were so many questions asked during the summer of 2010. How long is it going to last? When is he going to come back down to earth? Where was all this production before? Is he on the juice? Given his past numbers, and in the case of the last question, the checkered past of baseball, these were all were valid questions.
The media were quick to ask all these questions and you have to know that Alex Anthopolous was asking these same questions to himself right up until yesterday when the signing of Jose Bautista was official. In the end, he made the right decision and the reigning home run king will be in a Blue Jay uniform for hopefully the next five years. If not, something has gone wrong.
I thought it would be foolish for the Jays to not reward Bautista for a number of reasons. The most important one of all has nothing to do with wins or losses or overall production. It has to do with the bottom line and giving Rogers Communications the best chance to make a dollar in the short-term.
Much like the situation here in Ottawa with the Senators, the Blue Jays are in a complete rebuild, but the Jays have a distinct advantage in having a superstar on their roster to attract fans. Wins and losses over the next couple of years really don’t matter for this ball club, so more than ever, the Jays have to be able to sell some star power at the Rogers Centre. Enter Jose Bautista.
There’s nothing like watching a slugger go to work and blast one out of the yard in a Major League game. The crack of the bat is totally different. The ball flight is totally different and for those 5-7 seconds that the ball is in the air, everything stops. Your eyes become fixated to the ball as you watch it eventually land into the streets, or if you’re lucky enough, see it exit the stadium and onto a street adjacent to the stadium.
Jose Bautista was able to replicate this experience 54 times in stadiums around the league last year and it’s that one moment that can draw the people of Toronto to see the guy do his work. Now, the obvious question is whether or not he can duplicate his numbers from a year ago and I’ve yet to hear anyone say “yes”, but it leads me to the second important point.
Even if his numbers drop off by 50%, he’ll still have hit 27 homeruns with 62 RBI’s. A 13 million dollar price tag would be a little bit much for a guy with these numbers, but if he can hit 30-35 homers and 90-100 RBI’s, then 13 million is a steal. The Jays are taking into account that there will be a drop-off, but they’re hoping it’s not much of one.
Regardless of how the Blue Jays do this year, by signing Jose Bautista, Anthopolous succeeded in one very important way by signing the slugger. He kept his team relevant.