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Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The Mets are “showing interest” in veteran slugger Jose Bautista, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). The 37-year-old is back on the open market after being released by the Braves over the weekend.
It is not clear at this point how the Mets would envision utilizing Bautista, if a deal comes together. The veteran had lined up at third base for Atlanta, though there won’t be an opening at the hot corner in New York once Todd Frazier returns from the DL. Bautista would potentially represent a right-handed-hitting corner outfield option while Yoenis Cespedes is on the shelf.
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1. Stormy JEOr Jeff McNeil
I doubt it. He's pretty big and lumbering.
That said, I doubt Bautista would be a non-disaster in the outfield at this point either, and Alonso is probably a better hitter.
He turns 38 in a couple of months. He's older than Mike Napoli and Adrian Gonzalez. There's no "curse" in being toast at his age.
I've got a huge soft spot for him from his time as a Jay--pulling for him to succeed, even if it's not very likely he will.
He landed the first sucker punch, but Bautista didn't go down, so you can say what you want.
"Better to get punched in May than knocked out in October" was the best sign in the crowd as Odor threw the ball away allowed the Jays to win their 6th playoff game in a row against the Rangers and finish the sweep.
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Speaking of done: when we can plays, Reyes is just killing this team in the field and with the bat.
That wasn't a sucker punch. They were toe to toe.
In the expansion era, there have been 26 non-Bautista guys who put up 14-18 WAR from ages 32-34 (Bautista 16). For ages 35-37, 14 of them put up 8+ WAR. Those guys were nearly all good young too and are in the HoF, would be in the HoF if they hadn't been naughty, probably should be in the HoF (Whitaker, Walker) or are Tony Phillips (a late-bloomer) or Elston Howard. You then get a group of 7 with 3-7 WAR which includes 3 HoFers and a naughty guy. But that 3 WAR guy was Davey Lopes who, because he's Davey Lopes, put up 9 WAR/3.7 WAA from ages 38-42. Then you've got a couple of active guys.
Then it's Bando and Buford at 0 WAR. Then it's Wynn and Bautista at -1 WAR. Of the 24 non-active players, 19 were at least average for those years (0+ WAA) and one of the below-average guys was Lopes. Bautista for 35-37 has put up -5 WAA; next closest from this list is Bando at -2.8.
So actually, for a guy as good as Bautista was for ages 32-34, it is not common to be done at 36-37 and, in part due to playing time, he may have had the worst drop of any. That is the late bloomer's curse. (It is of course not exclusive to late bloomers nor universal among them.)
Of course it was a sucker punch. Nobody in that situation could have expected Odor to be so pathetic as to throw a punch there. Punching someone who has no reason to expect a punch is coming is absolutely a sucker punch.
What? He wiped the guy out with a slide. They start walking towards each other. Odor pushes him back. And then the punch comes. Bautista was actually pulling back his hand to punch as Odor hits him.
Any body should expect a punch in that situation. Bautista clearly did, because he was trying to throw his own punch. Odor was just faster.
That was mutual combat. No liability attaches to either.
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