paradise valley, ariz. — toronto blue jays star free agent outfielder jose bautista is receiving interest from outside teams, but coming off his injury-plagued, down year, nothing is completely off the table, including perhaps even accepting the $17.2 million qualifying offer.
Bautista’s people met for a long time in the lobby here at the scottsdale omni with a red sox executive, and it’s known that bautista’s ability to pull and take advantage of the green monster came up, but bautista’s main longtime agent jay alou downplayed the meeting, saying he has a longtime friendship with that boston executive, frank wren. And boston is known to be looking at many different available players as possible replacements for retired icon david ortiz, such as edwin encarnacion, carlos beltran, kendrys morales and others.
Alou, when asked, didn’t rule out taking the qualifying offer, though that would seem to be something of a long shot. When asked about that possibility, alou said, “he loves the city, loves the fans. I didn’t realize how much he loves it there. And he really feels he has unfinished business.â€