TORONTO - The door to the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse is of standard size, which suggests Jose Bautista will have to turn sideways to fit the chip on his shoulder through it.
Bautista, the outfielder who takes most called strikes as a personal affront, who authored the angriest bat flip in baseball history, and who showed up at spring training last year defiantly proclaiming that he knew exactly how much he was worth and that he wouldn’t let the Blue Jays pay him a dollar less than that, is about to paid a lot less than that.
The combination of a host of factors, primarily an injury-riddled 2016 that sent Bautista into a buyers’ market for power-hitting corner outfielders, has led him back to Toronto on a reported one-year deal for $18 million plus incentives, with two mutual option years for a similar amount that would top out at $60 million.