Report: Blue Jays ambivalent on keeping Jose Bautista

The Toronto Blue Jays have some big decisions to make this offseason with the powerful tandem of Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista becoming free agents. And it sounds like they may make a greater effort to keep one over the other.

FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman says the Blue Jays are expected to extend qualifying offers to Bautista and Encarnacion and they want Encarnacion back, while they’re more ambivalent on Bautista:

Expectation is, Jays will extend qualifying offer to EE, joey bats, not saunders. They want EE back, seem ambivalent on JB.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2016

The thinking seems to make sense.

Toronto certainly does not want to lose two powerful bats that have helped them reach the postseason two years in a row. Encarnacion is the younger of the two at 33 and seems to be a more reasonable candidate to sign to a long-term deal. Bautista is 36 and has seen his batting average dropoff the past two years, so the Jays may be more willing to let him walk.

A recent report said Bautista was expected to reject a qualifying offer from the Jays.