TORONTO – There is no time for Jose Bautista to ease back into things, to gently find his comfort zone with the finish line looming for the Toronto Blue Jays, and the urgency of the moment may be the slugger’s biggest challenge in the coming days.
Put simply, his production is badly needed for the American League East champions to defend their title, yet it’s hard to ask a player coming off a left knee sprain to return from a 15-day DL stint and rake like nothing happened. Factor in that he had played just 15 games after missing five weeks with turf toe just prior to that, and the task of parachuting in and doing damage is even tougher.
“When I first got back from the toe injury I was trying to overdo it a little bit, having a little bit of (anxiousness) and swinging at pitches out of the zone, overswinging at pitches in the zone and being a little too fine in other situations where I let good pitches pass by and then I was seeing off-speed. Stuff like that,” Bautista said Thursday after his activation from the disabled list. “Just got to focus better, understand who’s on the mound and the situation and hopefully adjust to that and just produce, come through.”
The question will be how far off Bautista will be from his normal self as he readjusts to the pressures of the majors. Before his knee injury Aug. 9, suffered when his toe got caught in the right-field turf, he had just started regaining his rhythm with hits in six of his previous eight games.
There was no rehab stint this time, just one simulated game in which he took nine at-bats, and getting used to a protective left knee brace that “was recommended – I’m not in love with it.”
Manager John Gibbons pencilled him in at designated hitter Thursday and plans to keep him there regularly as a way to guard Bautista’s knee for the time being, saying, “I think it would be smart.”
But whether or not he’s in right field isn’t the prime concern – the difference he can make is with his bat, not his glove and that’s what needs to get right ASAP.
“It’s not that people get selfish or worry about their individual stats in April or May, you’re trying to hit your stride, trying to get the feel for your swing, your at-bats – you’re trying to hit. Right now, I don’t think anybody cares about hitting or feeling good,” said Bautista. “I can get jammed with a man on third and less than two outs and if I drive a run in, I know how important that run is in late August. We’re in first place, we’re trying to grab a hold of that and not let go. My stats don’t mean a thing if we lose.”
His stats will, however, mean something to his pending free agency, although the narrative that he’s cost himself money this season and that he’s showing signs of age at 35 is an asinine one.
Heading into Thursday’s game, Bautista had 15 homers, 48 RBIs, 58 walks and 46 runs scored in 80 games. Double those numbers to roughly project them over the course of a full season and you still have a very good offensive player, even with the dip in his batting average.
“The way I look at it, even in a tough year that my stat line looks ugly, I’ve been very productive, especially when I’ve had to deal with what I’ve had to deal with,” said Bautista. “So I’ve just got to continue to do that until the end of the season. You put my stats on a per-game, per-at-bat basis and compare them to other people minus batting average, you’ll be surprised.”
Worth remembering is that Bautista volunteered to move to the leadoff spot when the Blue Jays were slumping back in May, an unselfish move that impacted some of his stats. With Devon Travis still nursing his troubled knuckle, he was back at leadoff Thursday and may stay there even when the second baseman returns.
“Maybe we’ll keep Bautista one and put Devon two, we could do that,” said Gibbons. “He’s a feared hitter in this league and everyone knows where he is in the lineup. When he’s coming up and and when he’s on deck, everyone is aware of that because he can burn you with the best of them. And he’ll take his walks, he has great discipline, so he’ll get on base for the rest of those guys. That’s a weapon.”
Particularly if he can quickly regain top form.
“It’s part of being in competition on a consistent basis and I haven’t been in competition for two weeks,” said Bautista. “Your body responds differently with adrenalin than without. No matter how much batting practice, simulated games, minor-league games anybody does, when you step in the box in a major-league game and the adrenalin is pumping and you’ve done it for as long as I have and you know what’s at stake, your body just goes to a different level.”
A whole lot is riding on it.