Albert Pujols isn’t the only prospective free agent who doesn’t want to negotiate an extension once the season starts. The defending American League home run champion has set a deadline for contract talks, too. Jose Bautista, whose arbitration hearing is scheduled for Monday, told Ken Fidlin of the Toronto Sun that he won’t be open to negotiating a long-term deal with the Blue Jays during the season.
“I won’t be open to it after the hearing,” Bautista said. “After the hearing, I believe we will notify the team that [an extension] is not going to be a possibility, unless it’s in that window they have from the end of the season until the free agency period begins.”
Bautista says he wants to stay with the Blue Jays, but doesn’t like the idea of negotiating a contract once the season begins.
“My desire is to play in Toronto long term but, after the hearing, or during the season, I have come to the conclusion that it’s probably not the best thing for me to be negotiating any type of deal,” he said. “I want to focus on the game and trying to win ballgames."
Bautista asked for $10.5MM in arbitration and the Blue Jays countered with $7.6MM, as MLBTR’s Arb Tracker shows. The sides have not started discussing an extension, as far as Bautista knows. Click here for more on Bautista's arbitration case.
Pujols wannabe.
Pay the man!!! He’s at least as valuable as Josh Hamilton except without the baggage. The man can straight out hit!! If Hamilton is worth 12 mil a year, why not this guy? 54 hrs!! 124 rbi’s!!! cmon!!
you’re fired.
Yeah he’ll probably hit at least 60 – 65 HRs, 150 – 160 RBIs next year. The guy has a proven track record.
I’m worried at the fact that jaysal liked your comment…
to take one out of notsureifsrs’ book:
Disqus designates you for assignment.
He’s a one year wonder – be careful – remember Mr. Wells
ugh.
I hear your frustration man lol ignorance is common place around here
Wells was really good for a number of years before he landed his contract.
My sources tell me that John McDonald has hired Scott Boras and is also setting a contract negotiation deadline…..
But seriously this is ridiculous. If I was the Alex Anthopoulos I’d tell Bautista to not let to door hit him on the way out
Lots of players decline to negotiate during the season, its a distraction. Jbau isn’t the first and he definitely won’t be the last .
After reading his quotes he certainly didn’t use as strong of language as Pujols did. I guess the headline threw me off slightly.
He, at least you bothered to read it. Some of these idiots seem to be basing their reaction on things Bautista never said.
Yeah I feel like the title should be changed. Pujols literally set an extension, Bautista just said hey I don’t wanna negotiate during the season (even saying that he might try to get something done in the short negotiating window after the season). I still think it’d be a poor idea to give him a very big extension, I’d rather let someone else make that mistake if it was me.
not unexpected, kind of a personal preference thing not to negotiate during the reg season. doesnt make him a jerk at all. they can still negotiate with him after the season before the WS ends. i thought the jays were gonna wait and see on bautista anyhow.
finally some sense. thank you
let’s see if he can put up numbers like that in back to back seasons before we hail the next coming of babe ruth.
He’s 29.
uhh he’s going to get a longterm contract. if he regresses into an .800 OPS player, he’ll still get at least 2 years.
this should have been a reply to brandon
Considering how crazy teams are with contracts, he could probably even get 5 or more easy, even with reduced production.
I think it would be in his best interest to sign some kind of multi-year extension. What if he decides to go free agent and 2011 looks kinda like his seasons prior to 2010?
He’s going to a be a free agent either way. If he is terrible, then the Jays won’t offer him arbitration, and he will walk. And if he’s not, then they will, and we will get a couple of draft picks when someone else signs him. The only way he’s not a free agent is if the Jays lock him up long term.
I’m talking about an extension
then the jays get two sup picks based on todays cba and it still works out.
Trade him while he has value. He has hit more the 20 HRs in a season once. If someone wants to pay for last years numbers then let them.
Angels seems like a place that they overspend for over-rated players.
A more idiotic statement I have not heard. FAIL!
It’s tiresome to hear this kind of thing from people who look at numbers and haven’t seen the player day in and day out. There’s nothing over-rated about Bautista. He made significant changes to his mechanics in August 2009, and since then has hit 64 HR in MLB, while reducing his strikeouts and increasing his walk rate. Is he going to hit 54 in 2011? Probably not, but a lot depends on who’s hitting behind him, and how well they’re hitting. But he will hit at least 30-35, and will be an important contributor to his team. He’ll get an extension, and if he wins arb, it’ll start at 10M.
Go ahead and ignore September 2009 as well.
Way to reply to the wrong guy. My fail.
haha love the self reply!
if i were AA (which of course I am not) i atleast kick the tires on a multi-year deal with this guy. I think he is definetly worth 4/46-48…FOR SURE. He’s worth Dan Uggla money, whether u wanna give him that 5th year or not.
the guy can flat out rake.
his versitility, his leadership, and the fact that he WANTS to be here should equal we pay this guy.
Anyone remember David Ortiz and his middling career before he got to BOS? I realize Ortiz’s numbers were to a certain extent steroid induced, but nobody in beantown was clamouring NOT to pay the man. or to trade him or let him leave so you can collect a couple draft picks. Similar example with Edgar Martinez once upon a time in SEA…he came into his own real late…did they dump him after he finally broke thru? hell no. you hold on to those guys.
PAY THE MAN!
Big differences between Bautista and Papi/Edgar, fella.
Papi put up three huge years (.297/.383/.600, 40 homers per) in Boston before he got his big extension.
I don’t know the exact details on Edgar’s contracts, but I don’t think he got his first big extension/deal until ’94 or ’95.
Bautista is a much different case from either of those two.
David Ortiz also played in Minnesota and they forced him to go the other way instead of just letting the man swing for the fences.
So Ortiz went “the other way”? Uh oh.
i guess my point is what is going on that they havn’t atleast inquired about signing him long term… AA seems pretty diligent so I’m suprised if it’s true and they havn’t even discussed a long term deal.
..and the Blue Jays response, “Oh, didn’t anyone tell you? we don’t want to sign you long term, sorry.”
I would think if the Jays wanted to sign him long term, something would have come out about it before now. it never did, likely because the Jays don’t want to sign him long term based on what he would be asking for.
can’t blame Bautista, he wants to get paid! maybe this is the opposite of optimistic/conceded. maybe he knows there is a good chance he won’t produce the way people expect, so he wants to get paid now while he still can.
it’s not really a question of whether the Jays should or should not sign him long term, but at what price. this year for arbitration Bautista is asking for $10+ MIL a season, based on 1 great season! I would have no problem if the Jays could sign him for another 2-3 years if it was close to $5-$7 MIL a season. then WHEN he produces at his normal level he will be getting paid for what he IS doing.
I also don’t believe Bautista. if it’s during the season and he is producing like he did in 2010 and the Jays approached him about a contract extension, do you really think he would not be interested? I think doubtful.
he’s 30 years old, what do you think his future is with the team?
if Bautista had another season in 2010 like he did from 2009 prior, he probably would have been non tendered.
maybe it should also be noted that Bautista played with a sports hernia in 2010, and has now had surgery to fix that.
AA has done a great job at being the Jays GM, like trading away one ridiculous contract.. don’t blow that by giving out another ridiculous contract.
nothing comes out of the jays camp unless they want it to. even the fact that bautista’s camp says they haven’t talked extension means nothing, they may be just respecting the jays’ no speculation policy.
i would say they are very interested in keeping him around long term, but would like some assurance that he will play with some semblance of his 2010 self.
I had the exact same sports hernia surgery as Bautista did the day before he did in Ontario. I played the whole baseball season with it (the hernia).
True story.
this seems mostly like negotiation tactic to me. If Bautista hits like he did last year, no way he won’t at least listen to extension talks, though he could test free agency.
What is the word for “buffoon” in Spanish?
New Bautista deal…
5yrs / $5M per yr base salary. $10M bonus per year if he puts up 30 and 100.
ok scrutinize… wait for it. And go
Bautista needs to cash in quickly. He’ll be 30 at the end of the season. Good guy or not, his skills are declining and his lifetime earning potential is limited.
did you just say his skills are declining at 30 years old? lol
that is around the time players begin to decline. not neccesarily bautista will, but don’t be unnecesarily condescending to others
I will be condenscending to others when they make dumb statements like “hes 30 , his skills are declining” specially after he just had his best season ever , how on earth could you assume hes declining after the best season of his career?
I’m not saying that Bautista will/or has started his decline, but you should Google, “How do baseball players age?” You’ll see a couple of statistical studies that show that most players hit their peaks around age 27-28 and do begin to decline around 30-32. So, his statement is not as dumb as you make it sound.
Yes . yes it is dumb.
Way to ignore the evidence . . .
makes sense, except for the part about the current CBA not allowing the whole “paying for performance” thing.
What are the guidelines surrounding incentive laden contracts then??
look at what guys are getting paid around the league dave…5M? the posters on here are beyond frugal. Kevin Millwood is asking for 5M dude…thats Johnny Damon at age 53 money…not JBau money.
only Ricky Williams would take such a deal. makes no sense.
a lot of ppl out there fail to realize that the jays are in a youth movement and locking up a dude who is 30 (fme im old haha) may not be in their plans. do not get me wrong as i love jose as much as the next bluebird but the jays can afford to wait and see. if he plays large again in 11 and the jays can get a fair chance at signing him, they have the cash to do it and they will spend if they feel its worth it. one more year of jose also means one more year for development in minors (ppl are overlooking a couple of potential studs down there in thames, gose, mastroianny – spelt wrong i know thx) can possibly make the jays feel they can trade or let him go for picks and save the cash for the likes of morrow cecil drabek etc…. Its a good time to be a Jays fan and it is only going to get better. IN AA WE TRUST.
im wondering why he has an agent? he should be saying ok i want x years about x amount get me as much as you can and then let his agent do his job and it is all irrelevant.
i’m pretty sure that is what’s going on
The way I see the Jays handling this, is they are going to play it out for the year, trade him or let him walk for picks.
AA has said, “We want to get [to the playoffs] as fast as we can. What we won’t do is shortcut it.”
The Jays could be anywhere from 2-4 years away from most of there top prospects coming into their prime. By that time Bautista will be on a decline and it makes no sense signing him now to a long term contract. They’ll be overpaying him for less production when they will truly be competing.
Pay him for this year, and walk away for draft picks, or trade him. Thats what I do.
Everybody relax J.P Ricciardi isn’t the gm anymore.
I would like to see AA sign Bautista to a contract similar to Hamiltons. With a 2 year contract AA could still deal Bautista at the deadline and if Bautista’s numbers were anywhere near his 2010 numbers the return could be tremendous.
AA would have some serious payroll flexibility and a lot of young talent.
Blue Jays fan here – trade Bautista, I say. If he turns out to be the big one that got away, so be it. As a fan, I have no use for a player who won’t commit to the team. You know he’s going to be gone just when the team is maturing around him. So let’s hope he has a great first half and then off he goes to be some other team’s troubles.
a 2 year contract for about 20-24M sounds right. with options/buyouts for future years. you can’t give a player that has become great in one season to much guarantee money as we already got rid of 2 horrid contracts, we don’t need to develop another one.
We’re not saying the Jays have to spend $127 Mill like they did with Vernon, but would it kill the Jays to offer $45 Mill over three years? I don’t… get this done! Now!
Curious to see what happens with Ba