I have to disagree with Steve Contursi a bit about why Jose Bautista remains unsigned:
The reason why free agent Jose Bautista has not been signed has nothing to do with baseball, nothing to do with the fact that he’s 36, and nothing to do with the price tag of $100 million that he pinned on himself. Instead, it’s all about Bautista, or “Joey Bats” as he likes to be called these days.
It’s about him and what’s becoming more obvious every day, that he’s the fingernails on the chalkboard, and a good number of people in baseball are simply tired of his act and want nothing to do with him.
I think it has everything to do with the first three things. In 2016, Bautista missed 1/3 of a season and his OPS dropped 100 points. When that happens to someone in their age 35 season, it may be a sign of a declining career. At this point, some team might pay him like a 1.5 WAR player and hope for the best, maybe $36 million for three years. The $100 million price tag is too much of a risk right now.
Being disliked doesn’t help, but plenty of unlikable players earned big money in baseball. Dan Duquette helped drive Bautista’s price down with his pronouncement that Orioles fans would not like him. If his price gets a lot more reasonable, however, I could see Duquette making an offer for one or two years.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2gCAFbK
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