Bautista Rubs Salt In Orioles Wounds
By Stan "The Fan" Charles
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| Jose Bautista |
The 2010 Orioles' season can't end soon enough. Perhaps tops among the indignities of being the worst team in baseball is that the one team in the American League East the pundits felt the O's would be better than, the Toronto Blue Jays, are 11-0 versus the flightless Birds.
The latest loss, an 8-2 thumping at the Rodgers Center, featured two home runs from one Jose Bautista -- his 29th and 30th of the season. Lost amid the ruins of the 13th consecutive season in purgatory, is the knowledge the Orioles briefly controlled Jose Bautista -- not long ago either, 2004 to be exact.
No, not the pitching Bautista who stayed around for several seasons, this Bautista was a Rule 5 pick-up off the Pirates roster in the '03-'04 offseason. A Rule 5 pick-up must stay in the big leagues with the team that drafts him for the entire first season.
In the case of Bautista, the good news for the Orioles is they were not the only team that blew it on this guy. That 2004 season saw Bautista start with the O's and make his major league debut April 4, 2004. He was then on a traveling carousel the rest of the season, claimed on waivers by the Rays June 3, traded to Kansas City on June 28, traded to the Mets on June 30 and then, without playing a game with the Mets, traded back to the team that had originally lost him -- the Pittsburgh Pirates.
That whirlwind June made Bautista the only player in major league history to be on the roster of five major league teams in one season (and specifically his rookie season). He finally played a full season in 2006 with the Pirates and, while batting only .235, he belted 15 home runs with 51 RBI. In 2007, Bautista elevated his game a bit, hitting a .254 average while slugging 16 HRs and knocking in 63 runs.
But 2008 was a struggle, and when he was optioned to the minors in August, he played well for a couple weeks and was picked up by the Blue Jays in a trade. While not a stud with the Blue Jays in 2009, it sure looks like Bautista has found a long-term home compliments of an amazing 2010 season.
Posted July 28, 2010
