Jose Bautista is expected to make his Atlanta Braves debut Friday night against the San Francisco Giants, but before he suits up for his sixth MLB team he wanted to get something off his chest.
The six-time all-star and two-time home run champ is grateful for the 10 years he spent with the Toronto Blue Jays, so he penned an emotional thank you letter to the organization and its fans in The Players’ Tribune as the next chapter of his career gets underway.
“I want to say thank you, to the Blue Jays organization, for wanting me in the first place,” Bautista wrote. “When you traded for me, back in 2008, I was a part-time player — closer to 30 than 20 — who had already bounced around between four teams in this league (the Orioles, Devil Rays, Royal and Pirates). But you gave me a chance, a real chance, to come in and prove myself. And that’s one of the things that I will always appreciate about Toronto as a franchise.
“I also want to say thank you to the city of Toronto, for welcoming me with such open arms — and for taking me in, for all these years, as one of your own.”
The 37-year-old played 1,235 regular-season games in a Blue Jays uniform and became one of the franchise’s all-time greats. He is second to Carlos Delgado on the team’s home runs list and ranks third in RBIs behind Delgado and Vernon Wells.
Bautista’s most memorable moments in Toronto occurred during back-to-back ALCS appearances in 2015 and 2016, experiences he says were made all the more memorable thanks to the incredible support he and his teammates received from the fan base.
“I know a lot of guys, they work extremely hard for their entire careers, and they never get to sniff the playoffs, or even a pennant race,” Bautista explained. “And I’m just so grateful — to have gotten to go on that journey with all of you. We really did feel like we were representing all of Canada during those playoff runs. And it meant everything to us.”
Bautista signed a minor-league deal with Atlanta on April 18. He hit .250/.386/.361 with nine hits and five RBI in 36 at-bats in 10 games with the team’s triple-A affiliate prior to Friday.
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