The Red Sox "made multiple offers" for Jose Bautista during the Winter Meetings, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. Boston "never got the sense that the Blue Jays were serious about a deal" and Rosenthal reports that several other clubs inquired about Bautista's availability as well.
One would think that the Sox would've had to pay a premium to extract Bautista from their division rivals, but needless to say, that trade would have completely altered the shape of the offseason. Let's play alternate reality for a moment and explore how a Bautista deal would have affected Boston's two biggest winter moves…
- The Adrian Gonzalez trade. Rosenthal notes that the Red Sox were specifically looking for an outfielder (Carlos Beltran and Magglio Ordonez were also options), so a Bautista deal would've kept Kevin Youkilis at third base and left Boston looking for a big bat at first. It's hard to see Theo Epstein, however, cleaning out his farm system for the sake of two trades, when Boston has the finances to simply sign a big-name free agent. It's also possible the Jays would've wanted some of the prospects that the Sox sent to the Padres for Gonzalez. That said, the Red Sox had been interested in Gonzalez for so long that they surely put him at a higher level of importance than acquiring Bautista.
- The Carl Crawford signing. Bautista's presence would've made Carl Crawford's signing unnecessary, unless the Red Sox were prepared to move J.D. Drew or just keep a $14MM player in a bench role. If Crawford doesn't land in Boston, that has a domino effect on several other teams; for instance, if Crawford instead had signed with the Angels, then the club wouldn't have hade a need for Vernon Wells.
The Angels didn’t have a need for Vernon Wells when they traded for Vernon Wells…
Came to the comments to say the exact same thing.
Using that logic, the Red Sox didn’t have a need for Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, or Jose Bautista either.
Interesting but I think all Red Sox fans are much happier the way the off season has really panned out.
Yeah, can’t blame them for being happy about it, a lot of other teams would have been happy with a similar out come as well.
Yes, I agree. Assuming that Gonzalez signs the extension with Boston, it’s a very good deal. After seeing how they pillaged the Angels over Wells, Bautista certainly wouldn’t have come cheap.
JBau as a member of the Sox would hit 50HRS at fenway lol That would be sweet!!!!!
You realize he hits every HR to left field right? Fenway would turn him into a doubles hitter.
did you see how high he hit some of them though? They’d go over the Monster, IMO.
Sure, a lot of them would. But you can’t say ALL of them would..
he would launch them over that wall. Did you see some of those bombs he hit at fenway last season.
as opposed to the 50 he just hit?
To be fair, he specified AT Fenway. 50 HRs in 81 games would certainly be impressive.
oh yeah
Well, u could easily say the same thing as gonzo…
Glad the red sox didnt get bautista… he is gonna be a 1 year wonder like Chris Johnson
CHRIS WHO?
exactly
Chris Johnson was a one month wonder…And his “blasts” occured at Minute Maid Park…In other words, Minute Maid is concentrated.
chris johnson is a running back for the titans who ran for 2000 yards last year I guess your only a baseball fan lol
I am only a Baseball fan.
apparently if someone says chris johnson (number one fantasy pick this year in most drafts for NFL) and you think of a guy with less than 400 at bats who plays for the astros lmao
I follow football a good bit but the baseball player is still the first player to come to mind given that this is MLBTR. 🙂
Me as well. Does any other sport really matter?
yea im only a baseball fan 2000 last year that was his only good year I guess your not a smart kid because a 1 year wonder is someone who has 1 good year nuff said
3 years in the league 4600 yards rushing yep a 1 year wonder…you dont know anything about football….just because he was not on espn every sunday does not make him a 1 year wonder “nuff said”
Nuff Chris johnson(the running back) talk this is a baseball app though it would be coolif it was football too and don’t forget basketball
Well, I guess, unlike you, the Red Sox front office doesn’t think so. Nor do most people who’ve actually seen him play.
Regardless of whether or not he is a one year wonder I am happier with Crawford than Bautista, so I’m glad it didn’t happen.
That’s assuming that while not a one year wonder he also isn’t a 50 HR per year hitter, more like 30ish. If I thought he was a 50 per year hitter I could change my mind.
you clearly know nothing about football…chris johnson is not a one year wonder…his rookie year 08 he ran for 1200 yrds at 4.9 per carry(AWESOME!) 9 TDs along with 206 receiving yeards for 1 touch and only coughed the ball up once his rookie year…yes 09 was his best year so far(in a 3 year career) 2000 yrds a 5.6/carry 14 tds 503 receiving yards 2 receiving tds and only coughed it up 3 times….last season he 1300 at 4.3/carry(very very very good) 11 tds 245 receiving yards 1 receiving td 3 fumbles and only 2 lost…how exactly is he a one year wonder????
What a terrible comment. Seriously. Johnson had another awesome year this year and is one the best running backs in the entire NFL. Anyways…
Interesting….I wonder what they were offering? I’m assuming it would have included at least a few of the pieces that were sent to San Diego for Agon. I wouldn’t have been that upset if Toronto could have gotten a good package of young players and perhaps a roster player for Bautista. I’m really hoping he can start off strong next year and perhaps AA starts to shop him at the trade deadline when his value is even higher (yes I know he’s coming off of a huge year and his value is high now, but nobody REALLY knows what to expect for next year, if he comes out of the gates and has 20-25hr’s by the all-star break then his value will be even higher).
great post…I hope Bautista comes out mashing for the fence and that AA can flip him for some additional talent. Let’s face it the Jays are at least two to three years away from contending and prospects that are close would go along way in ensuring that they stay perennial contenders.
You would have been happy facing Bautista 20x a year for the next few years? Not me.
The problem with flipping Bautista at the deadline is he’s going to be a free agent, so unless a club can work out a deal ahead of time we won’t be getting much back in any possible trade of JBau.
“…a Bautista deal would’ve kept Kevin Youkilis at third base and left Boston looking for a big bat at first…”
Am I reading this right? It sounds like you were saying that Youk was at 3rd last year. He was at first most of the time, as I am sure you know. That would have left Youk at 1st and left the Red Sox still searching for a 3rd baseman (maybe they would have offered Beltre a higher annual salary for fewer guaranteed years?).
I’m a little confused by the timeline:
“Rosenthal notes that the Red Sox were specifically looking for an outfielder, so a Bautista deal would’ve kept Kevin Youkilis at third base and left Boston looking for a big bat at first.”
But the Gonzalez trade happened before the Winter Meetings, so Boston would already have a big bat at first. What am I missing?
Maybe he is saying Bautista would play the OF
No. I’m focusing on “a Bautista deal would’ve […] left Boston looking for a big bat at first.” By the time the Sox were discussing Bautista, AGon was already a Sox, so I don’t see how that phrase makes any sense.
You are correct, the ‘alternate reality’ that “would’ve kept Kevin Youkilis at third base and left Boston looking for a big bat at first” does not make sense. At the time the Red Sox were exploring a deal for Bautista (during the winter meetings) Youk was already entrenched at third base and Gonzalez was already locked in at first base.
could you imagine joey bats playing left? he would get soo many out field assists on singles with his cannon arm…..ground ball to left batter joggin out the single all the sudden joeys arm takes over throws a freaking bullet to youlk at 1st for an out
Are u adrian gonzalas if not take the pic of him off
Heartbreaking news everyone: I’m not really the rollover minutes lady.
And my confession is that I am not really Ellis Burks.
Also Adrián was only going to the Bosox, the Padres didn’t show a real commitment to trade him anywhere else (Adrián said it in MĂ©xico, that SD told him they were gonna look for a way to trade him to Bosox one way or the other… two offseasons ago, that’s one of the reasons he wasn’t too happy with the new SDP GM Jed Hoyer).
Two off-seasons ago Hoyer wasn’t their GM.
That angered me. Hoyer saying that if the Gonzalez extension (or lack thereof) had canceled the trade he was going to not try to deal him anywhere else SCREAMED crony-ism.
If thats the case then SD’s management is simply dumb. Why limit your options to the Red Sox? Especially considering the Sox don’t even have any can’t miss prospects down in the minors. I find this hard to believe.
Glad that never happened.
Signed,
a Red Sox Fan
Glad that never happened as well.
Signed,
a Blue Jay’s Fan.
Really? Because they jays are no where near contending ( In 3-5 years they will be) and could have got prospects for him
Yes really, im for the extension of bautista, hes not old ( just turned 30) and could still very well be good for 3-5 years lol
we don’t even know how good he is now, how could you expect him to be good when he’s 35?
if there was any good prospects being offered, he’d have been traded by now, so no
“so a Bautista deal would’ve kept Kevin Youkilis at third base and left Boston looking for a big bat at first.”
Can’t remember exactly when Gonzalez trade was but assuming they hadn’t already traded for him, Bautista would be playing 3B and Youkalis would be at 1st. It would still allow them to go out and sign Crawford.
Still pretty interesting though. I would think Bautista interest would be huge at the deadline if he is having another good year.
Yeah, Rosenthal said specifically in his tweet “After Jayson Werth signed and before they signed Crawford.” He didn’t say anything about A-Gon so I assume A-Gon was already a Sock…Nevertheless, the Red Sox still wanted a right handed hitting outfielder.
Yeah, kinda confused me too. It says “‘made multiple offers’ for Jose Bautista DURING the Winter Meetings”. The Gonzalez trade happened 2-3 days before the winter meetings. So it would have been Youk at third and Gonzalez at first with Bautista in the outfield.
I’m pretty sure the plan B to trading for Gonzalez and signing Crawford would have been trading for Bautista and re-signing Beltre.
If this is true, that means by not trading Bautista, they got to trade Wells. Sounds like a great deal.
I don’t buy that Bautista is going to be a 1-year wonder. Why? Simply because the majority of his homeruns were no-doubters! When he got a hold of one, it was long gone! Let’s not forget that Bautista is still a young player coming into his own. I think the Jays were right to keep this budding superstar. I wish him well in toronto.
Garret Jones hit the ball a long way too.
Encarnacion’s avg HR distance was the highest of the Jays’ i think. not totally sure
No-doubters at the HomerDome aka Rogers Centre.
Have you looked at Bautista’s 2010 splits recently? His OPS was 1.148 at home and .862 on the road. His batting average was 41 points better at home. And his SLG was 222 points better at home.
Combine that with the sudden and unexplained drastic improvement, his involvement with Angel Presinal, and his proximity to Dr. Galea, and he becomes a far too risky investment for other teams to acquire.
.862 OPS is pretty good. Not elite, but its useful
This post would be a lot less confusing if it was noted that the Gonzalez trade happened before the winter meetings. I believe the A-Gonz deal was finalized on Dec. 6, which is when the meetings started.
Yeah, the press conference was on the first day of the meetings. The trade was done on Saturday night (or was it Sunday night?)
Thursday into Sunday. The players were allegedly agreed upon Thursday night, the news broke Friday night, the deadline was given of Sunday afternoon, the deal fell apart Sunday afternoon and came back from the dead and was made official Sunday night.
I lost an entire weekend of my life to that deal, but they can keep it, I was probably going to waste it anyway.
*Imagines if we got Jose and he wasn’t a one hit wonder, and him and Gonzalez hitting Back to Back.* Oh well I’m happy with the way things turned out! I’d rather go with Carl and Adrian! Carl gives you 20 Home Run Power, 40 Stolen Base Speed, and a .290 – .300 Batting Average! So if he hits .295 with 17 – 25 Homers and 85 – 100 RBI’s with 35+ Stolen Bases, and superb defence I will be very happy!
What could the Red Sox have possibly offered that would interest Toronto after trading their already overrated top prospects for Adrian Gonzalez?
Jose Inglesias and Ryan Kalish I guess, no clue.
Can’t see how the Jays would really care about either piece. Iglesias is basically Hechevarria and Kalish isn’t really a high ceiling guy. More of a regular outfielder ceiling. You don’t trade a guy that just mashed 54 HR with an OPS of basically 1.000 for OK prospects
but you don’t know if he’ll revert back to .800 OPS
Jacoby Ellsbury + prospects. Doubt the RSox would hv done that
So you’re saying the Jays wouldn’t have any use for a package of Ellsbury, Bard, Doubront, etc?
Funny, I remember when Jays fans dismissed Buchholz from the Halladay trade discussions in much the same manner. How’d that work out for ya?
Yeah, and good luck with all of that.
Good luck with Jose hitting more than 25 Home Runs.
Wow… Nice comeback. I guess I wont have to wait to long considering he will be around the 25 mark right around the all star break.
Yeah because there was evidence last year that he’ll suddenly crash. I’d be willing to bet that he hits at least 25 next year…now 35, and I might take the under.
I think he is closer to the 40 range…
The funny thing with all the people crying fluke is that they fail to notice that there was a fundamental difference in his approach. His FB rate was WAAAAAAAAY up. With a normalization of his HR/FB ratio he still would have hit 35 HR.
The funny thing too is I’ve read some people say “pitchers will make the adjustment.” They adjusted twice last year: First was hard inside, second was junk away. It seemed to stop him for a week or so near the end of the season, until he actually hit one oppo and that 450-500 footer at Target.
the oppo one at Target was fluky at best though… I though flyout for sure when he hit it.
well apparently the Red Sox dont think he will bust, seem to think hes comparable with crawford actually… or at least that bautista for one year of arbitration would have been a better solution than giving crawford more money than wells, alfonzo soriano, and werth.
Ok so if they get batiesta with crowfrod and gonsalas the be in the world sierras against the phillies. Man that will be good to see that with that pitching staffs and the bats. That is they will make it to the world sieries if they can stay helthy
Spelling fail. Bautista, Crawford, Gonzales, series. It’s all in the article too.
Enough sighned
A blank fan
The fact that Crawford is in a Red Sox uniform and Bautista is not tends to damage the credibility of your assumption in regards to the Sox’ front office’s opinion of the two.
More than likely, the Sox made a push for Bautista, saw the cost was more than they wanted to give up for a guy even his current team is apparently hesitant to commit long term to and called it a day.
Is Ben chapman related to dog chapman?