By Canadian Press

Blue Jays players looking forward to Bautista’s return to Toronto

Jul 2, 2018 | 11:15 AM

TORONTO — Joe Biagini’s first interaction with Jose Bautista gave him two simultaneous perspectives of the former Blue Jays slugger.

Biagini was in the weight room at Toronto’s spring training facility in 2016 after joining the team as a Rule 5 draft pick a few months earlier. Bautista was stretching nearby while TV’s in the gym showed MLB’s top plays from the previous season.

“We were all watching and his bat flip was No. 1,” Biagini said, referencing Bautista’s most significant homer of his career — a three-run shot that gave Toronto the lead, and an eventual win, over the Texas Rangers in Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series.

“It was surreal to watch him watch himself do that. I’d never really been in that situation before, and I was in awe just being there.

“Everyone was like: ‘what were you thinking when you threw the bat?’ And he was like: ‘I don’t know, I was excited. It was a big home run.’ So it was fun to see him in that moment.”

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Bautista, now with the New York Mets, will return to Rogers Centre Tuesday for the first time since parting ways with the Blue Jays as a free agent at the end of last season.  

The 37-year-old spent 10 years in Toronto, developing from a journeyman outfielder to one of baseball’s top power hitters.

He played 1,235 regular-season games as a Jay, hitting 288 homers (second only to Carlos Delgado’s 336) and driving in 776 runs (third-most in franchise history) while helping raise Toronto back to baseball relevance over the last few years.

“He was the beautiful, well-trimmed bearded face of the franchise,” Biagini said. “I would say that he was the guy that everyone would turn to. … He kind of defined the Blue Jays for a long time.”    

Bautista twice led the American League in homers — hitting 54 in 2010 and 43 in 2011 — but none had a bigger impact than his ALDS drive in 2015.

“It’s the home run where he kind of saved my butt,” said catcher Russell Martin, whose error in the top of the seventh inning had given Texas a 3-2 lead in that game.

“I have a lot of memories because we were at the same junior college so we go way back, but that one, it was like: ‘thanks bro, I appreciate that.’”

For all his success in Toronto, Bautista struggled in 2017, batting just .203 through 157 games, and the Blue Jays declined the team option on his contract for this year.

He didn’t land another contract until the Atlanta Braves signed him to a minor league deal three weeks into the season. They released him after just 12 major league appearances a month later and he signed with the Mets, where he’s started to regain his form.

Martin expects Blue Jays fans to show their appreciation for Bautista during the two-game series this week.

“He blossomed here as a player so he has a lot of good memories, but the fans remember him driving in 100 runs, hitting 40, 50 homers,” Martin said. “That’s what they’re going to remember him by — just an all-around good player who played hard and hit the ball a long way a lot of the time.”

Biagini said it will be good to see his former teammate, even if it means he’ll be on the opposing side.

“I hope it will be meaningful for us and for him,” he said. “I hope he hits a lot of line drives, really hits the ball hard but right at people.”

Melissa Couto, The Canadian Press