Blue Jays, Jose Bautista reportedly agree to one-year deal with mutual options
Joey Bats is back in Toronto.
According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports on Monday, six-time All-Star slugger Jose Bautista has agreed to a one-year deal to return to the Blue Jays.
Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com adds that the deal contains a pair of mutual options that could keep Bautista in Toronto through 2019.
Bautista will reportedly get $18 million guaranteed in 2017 (more than the $17.2 million qualifying offer he rejected from Toronto earlier in the offseason), while the options could take him up to $60 million over three years, per Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports.
Bautista, 36, was said to be nearing a deal with the Blue Jays earlier this week. He will be looking to bounce back after a 2016 season where he was limited to 116 appearances and batted just .234/.366/.452.
This kind of low-risk, incentive-laden deal makes sense for both sides as Bautista will be counted on for a lot of offensive production after the losses of both Edwin Encarnacion and Michael Saunders in free agency this winter.
