By 
It’s been 20 years since the Toronto Blue Jays have made the postseason, but with much of the American League East in flux and with a slew of talented new veteran additions in the stable, there’s a belief in and out of Toronto that the Jays could be on the verge of making a run to return to October baseball. Jose Bautista joined Paul Jones and Eric Smith on The Fan 590 in Toronto to discuss the Blue Jays’ offseason spending spree, the new-look pitching staff and representing an entire country as a member of the Blue Jays.
On general manager Alex Anthopoulos’ offseason spending spree:
“He’s done a really great job. He’s really stuck to his word. Ever since he got the job he’s said, ‘When the time is right, I’m gonna go out and put a team together that this city and this country deserves.’ It’s not about just spending money to say you’re spending it. He’s done it the right way.”
On the revamped pitching staff in Toronto:
“We have a great group of established Major League pitchers that have a lot of talent. A couple of them have won Cy Young awards. Others, their ceiling, you don’t know what it is. They could be as great as getting Cy Youngs themselves. And it’s a big contrast, going from one guy that’s a big right-hander guy, throws hard, then you’ve got a short lefty that throws slow, and changeups and stuff. It’s not going to be easy to adjust. And then you mix in the knuckleballer.”
On how conscious they are that they’re “Canada’s Team”:
“We’re very conscious of it. We see it in the coverage and we see it in the love, for example, that I get in the mail. I get a lot of fan mail. I try to respond as quick as possible, but it’s hard to keep up with it because I get a ton of mail from all over Canada. That’s how you can tell. And we get a lot of people to follow us who cover us, as opposed to a lot of teams where they don’t get too much. So it shows that there’s a lot of reach, and there’s gotta be a lot of coverage in order to get everybody satisfied.”
Comments