When free agent Jose Bautista eventually inks a new contract, you can bet he’ll be looking at the 2017 schedule with a big, fat red marker in hand.
His next visit to Camden Yards will be a must-see affair.
The Baltimore Orioles ensured that because of their dialogue with the free agent slugger’s camp at the winter meetings. On Tuesday night MLB Insider Jon Heyman tweeted that the O’s informed Bautista’s representatives he is not a good fit for the club because its fans don’t like him.
Orioles general manager Dan Duquette joined The Jeff Blair show Wednesday morning and didn’t back down when asked about the comments.
“I told the agent, ‘We’re not interested. Our fans do not like your player,” he told host Blair and Mike Wilner on Sportsnet 590 The Fan.
When asked once more, he expanded.
“I told the agent that, yeah,” said Duquette. “Our fans do not like Jose Bautista and rightly so. He’s one of the rivals in the division.”
He later added with a laugh: “That may change if the market comes down. We could also reconsider.”
Before the infamous Texas Rangers brawl this past May, Bautista’s biggest adversary was the Orioles. In addition to holding some seriously bad blood with Baltimore reliever Darren O’Day — which you can read all about here — he’s fired barbs at O’s manager Buck Showalter and centre-fielder Adam Jones.
Bautista’s reps met with the Blue Jays on Tuesday and he’s said to have a desire to remain in Toronto.
