Toronto Blue Jays to Trade Jose Bautista?

May 31, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista (19) disagrees with a called strike three made by home plate umpire Dana DeMuth (left) during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY SportsJose Bautista is one of the league’s elite power hitters and is the “leader” of the Toronto Blue Jays.

TRUTH: Jose is a child who needs to be humbled. All too often Bautista gets upset and shows the same classless act of yelling at umpires.

How is this leading a team to a World Series?

Keep tossing your helmet, yelling at umpires and telling them they’re stupid. Keep doing it. Smart Blue Jay fans will continue to think you’re a child who is extremely selfish. Fans are going to start thinking the organization needs to start a childcare for their own players. Jose Bautista is supposed to show the younger players how to be a big league ball player but what has he shown Brett Lawrie? Both players are suffering from the same problem and Brett needs better leadership around him to teach him how to be a big leaguer.

What makes this situation sad is that there are veteran players on the Blue Jays like Adam Lind and Colby Rasmus who show great respect to the umpires when they get punched out. For some reason Jose can not seem to watch and learn.

The team had to bring in Mark Derosa, Mark Buehrle and RA Dickey to lead this team because what they had in-house was toxic. Who was the leader ? Jose Bautista. This season has been a disaster AGAIN and the team needs to continue to make changes and I believe Jose should be #1 on their trade list.

Now What Makes him so valuable:

Contract

His current contract (5 years, $65,000,000) has him with the Blue Jays until 2017.

Stats

2010 – Games- 161 HR- 54 RBI- 124
2011 – Games- 149 HR- 43 RBI- 103
2012 – Games- 92 HR- 27 RBI- 65

Based on his production this $14,000,000 looks like a steal and would make him the most valuable trade commodity the Blue Jays have.

People can debate the value return for a player like Jose but I know pitching is needed. Would I be upset if the team trades him for two high-end pitching prospects and a mid level major league ready bat? No.

Our batting order would still be deadly:

1. J Reyes
2. M Cabrera
3. E Encarnacion
4. A Lind
5. JP Arencibia
6. B Lawrie
7. C Rasmus
8. E Bonifacio
9. A Gose/ R Davis

The rest of this season will be filled with speculation about the teams future and I hope Jose Bautista is not part of it.