What do we do with Beastista?

[darth_federer]

Hes had an incredible year this year, but a lot of people think its an outlier season. He will undoubtedly get 10 million or more in arbitration, but I think AA wont let it get to that. Obviously a 3-4 year deal is probably the best outcome, but what do you give him? He ll want 10 million a year for sure.

[J-Roc]

We don't really have a choice. Keep him and pay him. Try to minimize the damage. But I still don't feel right moving forward with him as our power bat. Best would be to get him some protection in the order.

[evilRyu]

i hope the feeling is mutual, and that he wants to remain with the team. him and his agent will definitely be selling themselves high, but hopefully not too high.. get 'er done AA!

[Susp3ct]

i hope its a heavy incentive based contract

[Peteros]

i hope the feeling is mutual, and that he wants to remain with the team. him and his agent will definitely be selling themselves high, but hopefully not too high.. get 'er done AA!

and it is well deserved!

I would love to sign him to a 3 to 4 year contract. 10 million a year is about right! I don't think this year was a fluke. He will hit many more, and he's still young.

[OldNo7]

We start spelling his name right.

[Avenger]

He's actually not going to get 10 million in arbitration, he's only making about 2.1 or something like that this year and a 400% salary increase is unprecedented, I'm guessing he'll get a (maximum)250% raise that puts him at around 6.5 million. Bautista seems to have all the leverage in this situation, he's gonna want a minimum of 4 years at 40 million or he might be confidant enough in his abilities and decide to take arbitration and test free agency.

[evilRyu]

We start spelling his name right.

[rtcaino]

We start spelling his name right.

Agreed.

Beastista is fine spelling. I have a problem with whoever has a problem with this spelling.

However, if one was actually trying to spell his legit surname, then 'Bautista' is the only way to go.

[DonYon]

You're all crazy if you think a 50 homerun guy is going to settle for a 10 million/year extension. If he ends up even hitting around 40 homeruns next year someone's gonna undoubtly throw over 15 million/year in the FA market and his agent knows that.

[Michael Bradley]

One year deal.

If he is for real, then the Jays can either 1) trade him next deadline, 2) let him go as a free agent for 2 picks, or 3) try to re-sign him. In the case of the latter, yes, the Jays will have to pay through the nose if Bautista repeats what he did this year, but at least they would be paying for some sort of certainty.

If he is not for real, then the Jays dodged a bullet.

An extension of $10 million or more annually might end up being a steal if Bautista is for real, but a noose around the team's neck if he goes back to the .750 OPS player he was prior to 2010.

[Hoopstarr]

You're all crazy if you think a 50 homerun guy is going to settle for a 10 million/year extension. If he ends up even hitting around 40 homeruns next year someone's gonna undoubtly throw over 15 million/year in the FA market and his agent knows that.

He'd be dumb not to take the extension. That's too much financial security to pass up. If he waits for a year and mostly repeats this year, he would be taking a huge risk to get only 3-5m more per year. Knowing how much he likes being here and the leadership role he has taken, I think he'll take the extension if it's offered.

[DonYon]

He'd be dumb not to take the extension. That's too much financial security to pass up. If he waits for a year and mostly repeats this year, he would be taking a huge risk to get only 3-5m more per year. Knowing how much he likes being here and the leadership role he has taken, I think he'll take the extension if it's offered.

I agree that he'll probably sign, just not at 10 million per.

[mikero]

AA should try and lock him up for 3-4 years.

I would give him a base salary of 10 million, but add lots of incentives.

[dagger]

This long feature in today's Globe touches on the contract question -

AA is cagey about doing an extension this winter
Bautista definitely wants to be here.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/b ... le1712941/

Anthopoulos’s eye tells him the mechanical reasons behind Bautista’s surge makes sense. But he wonders about those home and road splits, which through Thursday had Bautista hitting 30 of his homers at the Rogers Centre compared to 17 on the road, and has a home batting average of .293, or 56 points about his road average.

“Maybe those numbers on the road are really him,” Anthopoulos said.

It would be a stretch to say that Bautista sees himself as ‘Employee No. 19.’ But he has an acute sense of self and place and now he is just three homers away from 50 and one from surpassing Bell, another son of the Dominican Republic.

As he signed autographs after batting practice in Baltimore this week, Bautista talked about his Rule 5 season: he was then 23 years old, lifted out of Single-A to the majors, given 96 plate appearances in 64 games, resulting in a .205 average and no homers. He actually had more homes than homers – three apartments and, lucky for him, a house in Tampa that he’d already purchased.

“For somebody in A-ball like I was, without a lot of experience, the Rule 5 experience can be hard,” said Bautista. “The results weren’t there for me, but I learned a lot of things. I got to see how guys went about their business, and how they really trusted their coaches and each other – how they used reports, video and all that stuff. They don’t have video in the minors.”

No longer a happy wanderer, Bautista is clear that he would like the people responsible for his Toronto comfort zone to be back in 2011, yet he knows that with Gaston retiring, Murphy could be part of any overhaul.

So Anthopoulos has a decision to make. To commit long-term, or risk Bautista leaving as a free agent after the 2011 season.

“Everyone says that we need to make a decision on Jose this off-season but I don’t necessarily agree with that,” Anthopoulos said. “I understand the sentiment, but we have him under contract for another year, plus there’s spring training, the all-star break … there’s time to get stuff done.”

He has one year of salary arbitration left, and could triple this season’s base salary of $2.4-million (U.S.) going into 2011. He will not play winter ball in the Dominican this season, breaking a string of nine previous seasons in the league.

“I don’t think it would be the right time,” he said. “I have to get my contract negotiations under way and I can’t risk injury. I can’t play around with that.”

My own thought is that with this team 2-5 years away from truly contending based on the Tampa Bay plan, you can certainly consider a 3-year deal with a fourth year option, loaded with incentives. He's going to be a young 30, plays multiple positions well, which is worth a fair bit, too. Pay him to average 30 homers over that period, because he's going to sell some tickets next year and he is not a liability anywhere on the field. He's popular, a good face of the franchise until one of our young pitchers is ready to be called an ace. He's going to be a big plus with our young Latin players - a sort of big brother.

[dagger]

One year deal.

If he is for real, then the Jays can either 1) trade him next deadline, 2) let him go as a free agent for 2 picks, or 3) try to re-sign him.

If he's for real, we're going to look really, really stupid trading him for draft picks or prospects. You can't keep dealing players the fans identify with for prospects because you're afraid to play them. Jose is just now really starting to make the covers of sports sections here in town. People are cluing into the person. Rogers has taken a shiat kicking for Sportsnet 1. Let them indulge the fans a little. I would be content to keep Jose for three years, even if "for real" means 30 homers instead of 45-50. We're not contending next year or the year after. Too many of our best prospects are at Double A or lower, much lower in some cases. And even when they arrive at the ML level, most will need a couple of years to grow into their potential. If we can carry a year of Ryan's salary and money for trading Roy, we can certainly carry a bit of salary for a player actually helping raise awareness of the Jays and create new fans.

[darth_federer]

Dagger has a point. We re spending 16 million this year on guys who arent even playing on this (Ryan money and the Halladay trade) team. Hopefully that 16 million is invested on the team next year and helps us re sign guys like Bautista.

[Randle McMurphy]

I wouldn't go any higher than 3 years and 30 million on any multi-year offer.

Really, signing a one year deal/going to arbitration might be the best thing to do because of the risk involved.

[Randle McMurphy]

Dagger has a point. We re spending 16 million this year on guys who arent even playing on this (Ryan money and the Halladay trade) team. Hopefully that 16 million is invested on the team next year and helps us re sign guys like Bautista.

Dagger's way of thinking also led to the worst contract in baseball (Vernon Wells).

[dagger]

Dagger has a point. We re spending 16 million this year on guys who arent even playing on this (Ryan money and the Halladay trade) team. Hopefully that 16 million is invested on the team next year and helps us re sign guys like Bautista.

Dagger's way of thinking also led to the worst contract in baseball (Vernon Wells).

There's a huge difference between a three year contract and a back-ended loaded six year deal. Sorry, I don't see the two situations as analogous. You could say that there is a higher risk associated with giving a young pitcher like Romero a multi-year deal than giving Bautista three years. Bautista has proven his durability, Romero, could get hurt like a lot of other young pitchers and become an albatross. I saw no problem doing the Romero deal and would see a three year deal for Bautista as relatively low risk because this team is unlikely to be chasing other team's big ticket free agents for a few years.

And frankly, I'd rather deal with Jose than go after another team's free agent power hitter. It's a different kind of commitment.