Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista says he won’t negotiate a contract extension with the team beyond Monday’s arbitration hearing deadline. Bautista told the Toronto Sun Thursday that if the two sides don’t reach a deal, there will be no further negotiations during the season.”I won’t be open to it after the hearing,”
MLB JERSEYS Bautista told the Sun’s Ken Fidlin.”After the hearing, I believe we will notify the team that (a long-term deal) is not going to be a possibility, unless it’s in that window they have from the end of the season until the free agency period begins.”Bautista added he simply doesn’t want any distractions during the season.”My desire is to play in Toronto long term but, after the hearing, or during the season, I have come to the conclusion that it’s probably not the best thing for me to be negotiating any type of deal,” he explained. “I want to focus on the game and trying to win ballgames.”If I’m in that type of negotiation, it’s going to shift my focus from what I need to worry about and t
hat’s baseball. I don’t want my mind to be elsewhere when I come to the ballpark to help my team win.”Bautista is asking for $10.5 million in arbitration and the Jays are offering $7.6 million.
“As far as I know, we haven’t even started (negotiating),” said Bautista. “I have to be prepared for the hearing because it’s what has been presented to me. I haven’t had another choice.”I don’t get where all the vitriol is coming from. He’s asking for 10.5 in arbitration — a fair price for a one-year contract, considering the season he just had. Who knows what he’s been offered, and what his expectations are, in what appear to be non-existent longer-term contract negotiations? All he’s said is that if they can’t reach a deal before the hearing — i.e. before he needs to report to training camp — he doesn’t want to talk about it again until the next offseason, because he wants to focus on,
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wholesale MLB jerseys you know, doing his job and stuff in the meantime. WTF is wrong with that? If you believe that we need to see another year of play before offering him an extension, then nothing he said matters at all. He will play a full season, and at the end of the year the team will decide if they want to offer him a contact. The deadline becomes totally irellevent if that is what the team wants to do. Also, it’s baffling to me why people seem to think it’s inappropriate for an athlete to make his own decisions. It’s his life, his contact, it’s his decision. If a player decided he didn’t want to negotiate with his team ever, that would be his perogative. I would play to the end of his deal, and either be traded, or become a free agent. Nothing wrong with that either.