When the 2017 season ended, we knew that we had almost assuredly seen the last of Jose Bautista in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform. He was given a send off by the fans, and the front office had even sat down with him to let him know that his contract option would not be picked up. Despite being a team hero for almost 10 seasons, the era of “Joey Bats” was coming to an end for the Blue Jays.
What we didn’t really expect was that Bautista’s career would nearly be coming to an end. Sure, I knew he wouldn’t be earning anywhere near the 18 million he received from the Jays in 2017, but I had a hard time believing there wouldn’t be a team out there interested in a buy-low on one of the game’s elite sluggers of the last decade.