Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista indicated that he’s very open to holding contract talks before reaching free agency after the season, as Gregory Strong of the Canadian Press reports. Bautista said it would be an honor to end his career in Toronto, though obviously there’s a long way to go to make that happen. He noted that he had recently sat down with new club president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins, but also suggested that true negotiations haven’t occurred. “I have to have something to consider at some point if I’m going to make that decision, which hasn’t happened yet,” said Bautista. “So I’m going to continue to go about my business just like any other year and any other day because I don’t really have a decision to make right now.”
Here’s more out of the AL East, including a few other notable possible extension scenarios — a topic that Steve Adams and I tackled on today’s MLBTR Podcast.
- Shapiro and Atkins are addressing their fanbase as we speak, and quotes continue to be reported. Josh Donaldson’s contract situation came up, as it appears he’s headed for a second arb hearing unless a multi-year agreement can be reached. (The club employs a file-and-trial approach.) Atkins indicated that there is real interest in a multi-year scenario, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter links), though it could well be an arb-only agreement. Nevertheless, the newly-minted general manager suggested that something more could at least be contemplated. “We want him here as long as humanly possible,” he said.
- The team seemingly already went to an arb hearing with righty Jesse Chavez, Nicholson-Smith tweets. There’s only a $400K difference between the sides’ filings — $4MM vs. $3.6MM — so there isn’t a ton of money at stake. It’s certainly possible that both preferred to take their chances to bridging the gap. Either way, Chavez will fall shy of his $4.7MM projection.
- Meanwhile, Shapiro says that it’s unlikely the team will make another major move before hitting camp, as Nicholson-Smith tweets. But the team has had “substantive conversations as recently as just a few days ago,” per Shapiro.
- We’ve heard a lot of back-and-forth on the Orioles’ interest in signing free agent righty Yovani Gallardo — and giving up the 14th overall pick — and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says that the O’s are still monitoring things. If Gallardo’s asking price falls far enough, the team could be willing to punt the pick.
- The Red Sox don’t have much reason to pursue an extension with blooming star Mookie Betts, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal argues. Boston already has five years of control over Betts, isn’t really in need of cost certainty, and may prefer to avoid shifting forward salary for purposes of luxury tax calculations.
If I’m Donaldson I’d just bring my MVP trophy with me and every time the Blue Jays argue why I shouldn’t get my arb number I just tap the trophy as my rebuttal.
I know eh? I get that they are just trying to keep his future arb figures down, but damn-they just gotta pay the man. Make it rain for the bringer of rain and lock him up long term. Sign Bats to an extension so he can finish his career as a Jay as well.
Maybe Arte Moreno is waiting to sign Bautista as a free agent in 2017. Since he won’t pass up the luxury tax. The Angels have a lot of money coming off the books next season. This would be the big bat we need. Kalhoun could move to LF. Although the only problem with Joey Bats is that’s he’s 35 years old.
Your last sentence is why it won’t happen, I think the Angels have learned their lesson with aging free agents (Hamilton, Pujols, Wilson) Although pujols hasn’t been awful he wasn’t the pujols they thought they were getting, and I doubt Bautista would collapse like that but I mean why take the chance when you could try to make a run at Harper a year later
Because Harper will prolly be with the red sox or yankees
And because it would be two years later.
I wouldn’t mind the angels going after Bautista next year, then move calhoun to left. Or maybe they sign reddick
No Harper please. I can’t stand that guy.
Probably but there’s always a chance, I just think the Angels need to get younger not older
Don’t give up the draft pick O’s. Your farm sucks. Sign lincicum (spelling?) to a one or two year deal or make a trade for a SP. and don’t line up 9 SP guys and rotate them in and out of the minors. I hate not knowing who’s going to pitch the next day.
I thought Lincincum would of been a perfect fit for the pirates
Unless the Orioles have something up their sleeve in the trade market they need to get gallardo and lose the pic. Just too many what ifs on the starting staff
Doing that would just weaken the team in the future without really making it better in the short term. What would adding Gallardo do, bump their playoff chances from 5% to 6%? Not worth such a high pick. Doubt they’d pay him anyway.
The RedSox had better do something long term with Mookie Betts or he is going to give up baseball for the Professional Bowlers Tour. Look out Earl Anthony…..here comes MOOKIE!
Isn’t Betts a Boras Client?
Nope. He’s with Relativity. (You can look that type of thing up in our Agency Database under “Tools” on the nav bar above.)