Jose Bautista expects the Toronto Blue Jays to have flexibility this off-season, but he’s not going to speculate publicly about the needs general manager Alex Anthopoulos must address.
“I’d hate to make the comments that I would make in personal conversations when they’re not going to be blasted all over the media just because some people might misinterpret,” Bautista told Jeff Blair on Sportsnet 590 The FAN Monday. “It happens all of the time, and it did a little bit last year. I felt that some people misconstrued what I said when the [trade] deadline came.”
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Last July 31 Bautista told reporters that he was “disappointed” that the Blue Jays did not make any major trades leading up to the non-waiver deadline. The comments became a talking point during the weeks that followed, so this time Bautista simply deferred to Toronto’s front office.
Bautista told Blair that he believes in the roster Anthopoulos has assembled.
“I have faith in the fact that he’s going to be doing everything that is in his power to make this team better,” Bautista said. “But we have a pretty good group of guys put together, too. Moving forward our chances of winning are still very, very high. If we just stay with the same group and not even make any additions, which most likely is not going to happen, just by everybody gaining some experience and playing up to their capabilities we should have a pretty good team in place.”
Now that Adam Lind has been traded to Milwaukee and Colby Rasmus, Casey Janssen and Melky Cabrera are free agents, some of Toronto’s veteran players are off of the books. Bautista expects the Blue Jays to have financial flexibility this winter.
“With some departures and some money being freed up, I think Alex is — and I’m not going to put this in stone or say I got this from any type of official source – just using my logic he’s going to have some money to play with,” Bautista said. “We’ll see what happens and I’m excited to see what kind of moves he’s able to come up with.”
While Bautista hasn’t been asked to talk to any free agents in particular, he would call players if the Blue Jays ask him to help in the recruitment process. Until then he’s going to focus on his off-season preparation as Anthopoulos gets to work.
