By most indications, it appears that bat flip aficionado Jose Bautista will be returning to Toronto for the 2017 season, if not for longer after that. At 36, Bautista entered free agency hoping to score a massive payday. But like former teammate Edwin Encarnacion, he did not find the market to be as lucrative as he may have expected. Knowing that the current qualifying offer system is set to change this year may have scared potential suitors away, but in any case, the Bautista signing looks like a bargain.
By his standards, Bautista had a down year in 2016.