José Bautista
José Antonio Bautista Santos, nicknamed "Joey Bats", is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder and third baseman who played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Toronto Blue Jays. Bautista also played for the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies.
The Pirates selected Bautista in the 20th round of the 2000 MLB draft. He played for four clubs, primarily at third base, before joining the Blue Jays in 2008. In 2010, he became the 26th member of the 50 home run club, while leading MLB in home runs for the first of two consecutive seasons. From 2010–2015, Bautista hit more home runs than any player in the major leagues. He was an MLB All-Star six consecutive times and won three Silver Slugger Awards and two Hank Aaron Awards. He was named the American League Player of the Month five times and AL Player of the Week four times. Bautista was voted in the top ten in the AL Most Valuable Player Award four times.
Major league scouts took note of Bautista, including his power hitting potential and strong throwing arm, while he was in junior college. In 2004, he made his MLB debut with the Orioles and became the first player to appear on five MLB rosters in one season. He ended the season with the Pirates, where he would remain for four-plus seasons, seeing time as a utility player who played six positions, including designated hitter.
Bautista was traded to the Blue Jays in August 2008. After making adjustments to his swing, he broke through with ten home runs in September 2009. From 2010 to 2017, Bautista hit at least 20 home runs each year, and in four of those seasons, hit at least 35 home runs, both scored and drove in at least 100 runs, and drew at least 100 bases on balls, including twice leading the AL. In 2015, while playing in the playoffs for the first time, his bat flip in the American League Division Series caused a sensation that became a symbol of Toronto's first playoff appearance in 22 years. He is a leader or among the top ten in numerous offensive single-season and career categories for the Blue Jays.
In 2011, Bautista set up a program that helps athletes from the Dominican Republic to attend universities in the United States.
In 2024, he became the owner of Las Vegas Lights FC.
Early life
Coming from a middle class family in the Dominican Republic that placed great importance on education, Bautista began studying English at age eight. His mother was an accountant and financial planner, and his father, who had earned a master's degree in agricultural engineering in Hungary, ran poultry farms. Bautista attended a private high school, De La Salle High School, in Santo Domingo. He was aided by the Latin Athletes Education Fund, designed for players from Spanish-speaking countries aspiring to play college baseball in the United States. Although he invested much time in pursuing professional baseball, Bautista studied business at Mother and Teacher Pontifical Catholic University in the event a career in baseball did not materialize.After working out with various Major League Baseball clubs, he turned down offers of $5,000 from the New York Yankees and $42,000 from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cincinnati Reds offered him $300,000, which Bautista accepted; however, before the contract could become official, the team changed ownership and subsequently rescinded the offer. Bautista then created a highlight tape of himself using a camcorder and sent it to various colleges in the United States. There was no response until he received a call from Oscar Pérez, whom he had known from the Quique Cruz League in the Dominican Republic. Pérez informed him of the Latin Athletes Education Fund. He connected Bautista with Don Odermann, a businessman in the San Francisco Bay Area. Odermann, who assisted baseball players from Latin America desiring to play baseball in the US, knew that Chipola College, a junior college in Marianna, Florida, was seeking an everyday player. There, Bautista played for two years until being drafted.
Professional career
Early career
The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bautista in the 20th round of the 2000 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the Pirates for a $500,000 signing bonus. Bautista played for the Williamsport Crosscutters of the Class A Short Season New York–Penn League in 2001 and the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League in 2002. In 2003, he played for the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League.After the 2003 season, the Baltimore Orioles selected Bautista in the Rule 5 draft and carried him on their Opening Day roster. He made his MLB debut with Baltimore on April 4, 2004. After playing 16 games with the Orioles, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays claimed him off waivers on June 3. Twenty-five days later, the Kansas City Royals purchased him from Tampa Bay after a 12-game stint with the Devil Rays. He played 13 games for the Royals before they traded him to the New York Mets on July 30 for Justin Huber, who then traded him minutes later to the Pittsburgh Pirates with Ty Wigginton and minor leaguer Matt Peterson for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. This series of transactions made him the first player to appear on five different MLB rosters in one season, since matched by Oliver Drake in 2018.
Bautista played in 11 games for the Pirates in 2005. In 2006, his first full season in the major leagues, Bautista hit.235 with 16 home runs and 51 runs batted in. The following season in 2007, he posted similar numbers in 142 games, finishing the season with a batting average of.254, 15 home runs and 63 RBI. That same year, he became the starting third baseman for the Pirates. He took over for reigning National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez, who moved to second base.
Bautista was to be the Pirates' starting third baseman and backup outfielder in 2008. From June 14–24, he hit five home runs in a span of nine games against interleague opponents Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and the New York Yankees. However, he struggled offensively for most of the year, and after the 2008 trade deadline Bautista lost his starting job to the newly acquired Andy LaRoche. Bautista was optioned to the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians on August 13.
Toronto Blue Jays
2008
On August 21, 2008, the Pirates traded Bautista to the Blue Jays for a player to be named later, who eventually was Robinzon Díaz. The Blue Jays needed a third baseman due to an injury to Scott Rolen. Bautista batted.214 with three home runs and 10 RBI in 21 games for Toronto after the trade.2009
Starting the 2009 season on the bench, manager Cito Gaston assigned Bautista to back up Rolen and outfielders Alex Ríos and Adam Lind. Bautista started the season with a.317 batting average,.404 on-base percentage and.463 slugging percentage in 49 plate appearances in April. However, his numbers fell off, as he batted between.167 and.231 each month from May through August with two total home runs. At times he showed marked plate discipline; in the month of May, he walked 14 times for a.403 OBP despite batting just.231. Eventually, the Chicago White Sox claimed Rios off waivers, the Blue Jays assigned Lind to the role of designated hitter, and an injury to Marco Scutaro led to an increase in Bautista's playing time and making him the leadoff hitter.As the season drew to a close, the Blue Jays made changes to their coaching staff. One was to move first base coach Dwayne Murphy to replace the retiring Gene Tenace as hitting coach. Formerly a Blue Jays' minor league roving hitting instructor and hitting coach, Murphy had already spent nearly one year working with Bautista, teaching him to leverage his pull power by starting his swing with his now-familiar high leg kick. In September and October, he finally broke through, hitting 10 home runs with 21 RBI, a.257 batting average and a.606 slugging percentage. He hit 13 total home runs in 2009 with 40 RBI, a batting average of.235, and 79 hits in 113 games. Originally considered to be a non-tender candidate, he re-signed with the Blue Jays on a one-year, $2.4 million US contract for the 2010 season.
2010
Bautista began the 2010 campaign as the starting right fielder and leadoff hitter. On May 17, he was named AL Player of the Week after hitting.444 with 20 total bases, 4 home runs, 8 RBI, 8 runs scored, a.565 OBP, and an MLB-best 1.111 SLG. Bautista hit his 20th home run as part of a two-home run night against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 22, setting a new career high for a single season in just two months.Bautista was selected as a reserve for the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Bautista entered the game as a pinch runner for Josh Hamilton and finished the game 0-for-1.
For the month of July, Bautista batted.347, with 11 home runs, 29 RBI, and an AL-leading.765 slugging percentage, sharing American League Player of the Month honors with Twins outfielder Delmon Young. Bautista was also named Blue Jays' Player of the Month, which is selected through voting by the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. With his 12 home runs in May and 11 in July, Bautista became the third Blue Jay player in franchise history to have two months with at least 10 home runs.
Bautista was named co-winner of the American League Player of the Week award for the period ending August 1. He hit.545 with five homers and 13 RBI during that span. On August 26, Bautista hit his 100th career home run against the Detroit Tigers. Bautista was again named player of the week for the week ending August 29; in seven games that week, Bautista led the American League with a.500 batting average and hit four home runs. Bautista became the only Blue Jays player to win the award three times in one season. Bautista won AL Player of the Month for the month of August, in which he hit he led the AL in home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and total bases, while tying for the lead in extra-base hits. He finished tied for second with 23 runs and was third with 23 walks. He also won the Honda Player of the Month Award, his second such award in as many months.
On September 17, Bautista set the new Blue Jays single-season home run record with his 48th home run, breaking the record set by George Bell. On September 23, Bautista became the 26th player in MLB history to reach the 50 home run club in one season, and the first Blue Jays player to do so. His 52nd home run set a new MLB record for the largest single-season increase in home runs, eclipsing Davey Johnson's 38 home run increase from 1972 to 1973. Bautista finished the 2010 season with an MLB-leading 54 home runs, the highest total since Alex Rodriguez hit 54 in 2007. Bautista won the AL Hank Aaron Award and a Silver Slugger Award, awards for his offensive performance, and finished fourth in the AL Most Valuable Player Award voting, behind Hamilton, Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Canó. The Toronto chapter of the BBWAA named Bautista the Blue Jays' Most Valuable Player, the Blue Jays' Most Improved Player, and presented him the John Cerutti Award for displaying "goodwill, cooperation and character".