Joey Bats Returning to Toronto is Probably Best for Baseball

After all that, Jose Bautista is going to stay in Toronto for the 2017 season. And honestly, it should be that way.

It’s a one-year deal worth $18 million dollars. There are options for years two and three if Bautista is still worth that kind of dough.

But the guy; the bat-flip. It’s all you can think about when you think of Joey Bats; that Toronto uniform. And when you think about the Toronto Blue Jays, don’t you still think about Joey Bats kind of first? Even when Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson overtook him as better run producers? It was that way for me still.

The bottom line is that Toronto still needs Bautista – and Bautista still needs the Jays. They aren’t in full rebuild mode yet with some of the pieces that they have and he wasn’t getting a $150 million dollar contract coming off an age 35 season where he hit .234 and OPS’d at a clip of .817 (lowest since he became the Jose Bautista we know him as back in 2010).

So I’m glad he’s still there. Spatially, all seems right inside by brain with this one. Good on you both; Toronto and Bats.