As training camps opened for Dominican league baseball teams last week, Santo Domingo newspaper La Nacion Dominicana trumpeted a major development for that island’s equivalent of the New York Yankees.
“Tigres del Licey receive backing,” read the headline on a story that detailed a local businessman’s seven-figure sponsorship deal with the 22-time Dominican league champs.
But whether the squad will receive on-field support from Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista isn’t yet clear to the club, the Jays or Bautista himself.
Most times in the off-season, Bautista joins los Tigres for the Dominican league playoffs, which start in mid-January. This winter, however, Bautista will have more on his mind than whether he can squeeze in some game action before reporting to spring training in February.
Like money.
“What I did last (off-season) allowed me to be successful,” says Bautista, who turns 30 next week. “But I don’t know if I’ll be able to play winter ball given that we’ll be in the middle of negotiations. I don’t want to risk anything individually or for the team.”
Technically, Bautista can play with Licey if he chooses. As a native Dominican he’s free to play for his hometown team according to both the Winter League Agreement — a rulebook ratified last winter between MLB and four Caribbean leagues — and the Jays.
“We’ll address all the players the same way,” Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos wrote in an email to the Star. “It’s up to the players if they choose to participate in winter ball.”
But the Winter League Agreement’s “extreme fatigue clause” allows teams to curtail winter league action for players with more than 503 plate appearances. This season Bautista totalled 683 plate appearances and 569 at-bats.
Whether or not the Jays ask him to sit out the Dominican season, Bautista’s top baseball priority is still the team that pays him the most.
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