Bautista shifts to 3rd base

[LittleOzzy]

The Toronto Blue Jays are moving star slugger Jose Bautista from right field to third base to give them more production from the hot corner.

Bautista led the majors with 54 home runs last season, and is currently batting .325 with 22 home runs.

General manager Alex Anthopoulous said Thursday Bautista will take a few days before settling in at third.

The Jays called up outfielder Eric Thames to fill out the outfield with Bautista's move. Thames is swinging a hot bat at AAA Las Vegas, batting .375 in 17 games this month with eight doubles, two triples, one home run and 15 runs batted in.

To make room on their roster, infielder Mike McCoy was sent down to Las Vegas.

Anthopoulous says moving Bautista to third base will allow the Jays to wait for the recovery of minor leaguer Brett Lawrie. The Burnaby, B.C., native was close to being called up from Las Vegas last month, only to be hit on the hand. His recovery is coming along slower than expected, and may not return to game action until August.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story ... ition.html

[youngLion]

Bautista always gave the impression that he greatly prefers playing in RF. He won't complain publicly, but I wonder how he feels about this move.

[rarefind]

Bautista always gave the impression that he greatly prefers playing in RF. He won't complain publicly, but I wonder how he feels about this move.

pretty sure they would have consulted him, and he knows it isn't permanent. at this point adding thames into the lineup for nix is the smartest move yet.

[Randle McMurphy]

Bautista always gave the impression that he greatly prefers playing in RF. He won't complain publicly, but I wonder how he feels about this move.

Disrespected would be my guess. He's being treated like a star by the rest of the world, but not by his own team?

There's got to be a better solution than turning our franchise RF (who is the leading AS vote getter in the OF) into a stopgap 3B. It makes even less sense that they've decided to do this in a lost season, a season in which they've spent three months content with scrubs comprising half the lineup.

[Santoki]

I don't think I'd go as far as disrespected. I'm sure they consulted with him and he's too much of a team player and leader to say no. They'll get Thames regular playing time and Bautista will still be the long-term RF. I don't see anything wrong with this move because it's not permanent.

[Randle McMurphy]

I don't think I'd go as far as disrespected. I'm sure they consulted with him and he's too much of a team player and leader to say no. They'll get Thames regular playing time and Bautista will still be the long-term RF. I don't see anything wrong with this move because it's not permanent.

Of course he's not going to say no. That doesn't mean he's not going to feel disrespected by it, though. He has made his preference known about playing RF for a while now for a reason.

And Thames could get regular playing time easily enough by cutting down the playing time of Patterson, Davis, and Rivera.

[youngLion]

Bautista always gave the impression that he greatly prefers playing in RF. He won't complain publicly, but I wonder how he feels about this move.

Disrespected would be my guess. He's being treated like a star by the rest of the world, but not by his own team?

There's got to be a better solution than turning our franchise RF (who is the leading AS vote getter in the OF) into a stopgap 3B. It makes even less sense that they've decided to do this in a lost season, a season in which they've spent three months content with scrubs comprising half the lineup.

You might be right about him feeling slighted, but I actually think it's the right move for the team. 3rd base has been a black hole of production this season and Bautista is a plus fielder there. Filling the hole at third and putting Thames into the lineup is going to help the team.

Even if Bautista doesn't like it it won't kill him to play there for a little while, even the rest of the season.

[BigLeagueChew]

Our outfield is terrible now, Thames in left, Davis in centre and Patterson in right? And Rivera as 4th outfield. Defensive nightmare.

[Randle McMurphy]

Bautista's been slighted his entire career by organizations. I'm sure he's used to it by now, but I doubt he expected the Jays to do it to him too.

[Randle McMurphy]

Our outfield is terrible now, Thames in left, Davis in centre and Patterson in right? And Rivera as 4th outfield. Defensive nightmare.

Bautista's not exactly a good defensive 3B either. He's got the arm, of course, but his range is rather poor.

[SharoneWright]

Temporary. No biggie. A chance to help out.

[Trilogy]

I don't think its really a big deal. I'm sure Bautista wants to play RF over 3B, but I doubt he goes into the tank because of it. It's just a temporary thing.

[Back2back2back]

Maybe this will get him out of his current slump.

[Bigdaddy1980]

Albert Pujols can play 3rd occasionly to get Berkman in the lineup so why can't Batuista play 3rd for a few weeks until Laurie is ready? This is a non-issue

[mikero]

Why would Bautista feel slighted? He seems like a pretty humble guy to me. He'll probably be happy Thames (and Snider eventually) are on the way to help offensively.

[Randle McMurphy]

Albert Pujols can play 3rd occasionly to get Berkman in the lineup so why can't Batuista play 3rd for a few weeks until Laurie is ready? This is a non-issue

#1. The fact that La Russa plays Pujols at 3rd is insane. He's insane. Nobody should cite his moves as an example of how to deal with star players in this league.

#2. Playing 3rd base occasionally is a lot different than entirely switching positions mid-season. That just doesn't happen in this league to stars of Bautista's caliber.

Why would Bautista feel slighted? He seems like a pretty humble guy to me. He'll probably be happy Thames (and Snider eventually) are on the way to help offensively.

Perhaps. Or he may ask why his team is treating him like a utlility guy and stopgap option rather than the franchise player.

If all these feature stories about Bautista are true, he also certainly remembers the slights against him.

[LBJSeizedMyID]

With your rationale no wonder we have so many diva's in major league sports. What if the player offered to do it? Different story or same position?

For example Adrian Gonzalez and his offering to play the outfield?

[evilRyu]

i don't know how i feel about this.. i would prefer to see Bautista in the OF, as he indicated his preference there. Of course none of this would have happened if Lawrie came up sooner.

[Randle McMurphy]

With your rationale no wonder we have so many diva's in major league sports. What if the player offered to do it? Different story or same position?

For example Adrian Gonzalez and his offering to play the outfield?

If the player really wants to move and it makes sense for the team, let him. But Bautista has made his preference known about RF for a while now.

[tecumseh18]

Lawrie's lingering injury is just a bad luck situation. There are no perfect solutions. Two things:

#1 Bautista considers himself the leader (or with Romero, the co-leader) in the club house. He takes that role seriously. He's been conditioned over his career not to be a diva. He's not floating above it all, and takes the team's slump, especially the hitting slump, personally. Leaders do whatever it takes to help the team. Certainly his performance tonight didn't suggest that he's pouting.

#2 The plan at the beginning of this season was to have Bau play 3rd, awaiting Lawrie's call up. This didn't just come out of the blue.

Sure he has a preference. Everyone has preferences. But real life laughs at that.