Happy Birthday to Jose Bautista; in a career that lasted fifteen seasons, his career shined during his years with the Toronto Blue Jays. Bautista also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies. While Bautista played for a lot of teams, bouncing around earlier in his career due to inconsistent play. Once he got to Toronto, he found something that made his entire game click.

Career Statistics/Accolades (2004-2018):

.247 BA 1,496 HITS 344 HR 975 RBI .361 OBP 1,022 RUNS

  • 6x All-Star 
  • 3x Silver Slugger

From 2006-08, Bautista played with the Pirates and showed solid production offensively but was constantly fighting for playing time. Even in 2009, his first year with the Blue Jays, he was fighting for playing time. In the offseason before 2010, Bautista took a long, hard look at his swing approach and changed it. It worked at a perfect time when Bautista was running out of time to prove himself as a big leaguer, and the Blue Jays also needed a new face of the franchise, with them trading away Roy Halladay that offseason. In 2010-11, he led the Majors in Home Runs with 54 in 10 and 43 in 11. As well as finishing top-5 in the AL MVP voting in those years, he was the AL recipient of the Hank Aaron Award, awarded to the top hitter in each league. His peak years were from 2010-15 when he was healthy—scoring 100 or more RUNS, drawing 100 or more Walks, and driving in 100 or more RBIs four times. 

Defensively, Bautista played most of his games in Right Field and a fair share of games at Third Base. While he will be remembered for his offensive production, and rightfully so, he held up his own at both positions. 

As a Yankee fan, watching Bautista come to the plate was not fun. He hit 37 career home runs against them, and almost all of them came during his days with the Blue Jays. After playing over 1,400 career games in 2015, he and the Blue Jays finally made the playoffs. In Game 5 of the Division Series against the Texas Rangers, he had the defining moment of his career. In the bottom of the seventh inning and the game tied 3-3, he hit what would be the game-winning 3-run home run. Bautista would watch the ball go over the fence and flip his bat high in the air before running the bases, which lit up the Toronto fans. 

After 2015, an injury in 2016, following a decline in production would eventually end the career of Jose Bautista. This past year, he officially retired as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, being inducted into their ring of excellence. This winter, he also becomes eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. While Bautista isn’t making the Hall of Fame, his career should still be considered very good. After 2009. his career was on the bubble, and he was able to make a change by reinventing his swing. Not only did he play for another nine years, but he went from making a little above the league minimum salary every year to almost $100 million in additional contract earnings. 

References:

  1. Jose Bautista via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Bautista#
  2. Jose Bautista Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bautijo02.shtml