Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
I don't think the Jays deal Bautista for the simple fact that he appears to be the ambassador for the organization relating to Latino players. From what I've read, he was consulted by AA before acquiring Escobar and then was the guy that the Jays designated to help Escobar make the transition. Bautista is fluently bilingual and that's actually a pretty rare asset for a Latino MLBer.
Considering the Jays are clearly making a strong move towards being more aggressive in bringing over young Latino prospects, I think that Bautista is a huge part of our future. Even if his on-field production drops off slightly he still brings value to the team in other ways.
I do think that Buck gets traded for two reasons: his value will never be higher and the Jays do have a replacement prospect ready in J.P. Arencibia. For those unfamiliar with him, here's his AAA numbers this season:
.309/.363/.650 = 1.013 OPS
29 HRs in 87 games
Those are ridiculous numbers from a catcher. I think the Jays deal off Buck and get maximum value then go into next season with a solid Arencibia/Molina combo to ease the rookie in.
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Based on the argument that the Jays should trade because a player's value has never been higher, then if I was the Jays, I would be moving Bautista. They are not contending this year and most likely next year as well. They have Travis Snider down in the system, who eventually, needs to come back up and get some serious playing time. Bautista might be able to fetch a good return, lots of contending teams are looking for a big bat and over the first half of the season and September of last year I believe he has hit 40 home runs.