Current Blue Jays can learn plenty from José Bautista, legacy of '15 and '16 squads

José Bautista's game-clinching home run in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS remains an unforgettable moment.

The crack of the bat. A sold-out dome of Toronto Blue Jays fans ready to explode. Bautista’s glaring gaze into nothingness and then the heave-ho of his bat high into the air. On that one swing alone, Bautista immortalized himself in Toronto sports folklore.

Now, Bautista will officially have his own place in Blue Jays history. The 42-year-old, who ranks second in franchise history with 288 home runs, signed a one-day contract Friday to officially retire as a Blue Jay. He’ll be recognized on the Level of Excellence Saturday.

“You could feel it,” Bautista said, reflecting on his 10 years in Toronto. “It was palpable. The energy, the fans across the nation, it still is to this day. These guys are lucky that they get to play with that much of a fanbase behind them … It was a great feeling, and I’ll forever remember that.”

Bautista is still a hero in Toronto, not just for what he accomplished but for the way he accomplished it. He shined on big stages. He never backed down from a fight. And, perhaps most importantly, in 2015 and 2016, he was the head honcho of two unruly squads that were an utter nightmare to play against.

Even if the Blue Jays’ current clubhouse houses different personalities, there’s a lot to be learned from how those older teams operated.

“They weren’t fun to play against,” said Kevin Kiermaier, who manned centre field for the Tampa Bay Rays in ’15 and ’16. “I didn’t like them very much. They liked to talk. They hit a lot of homers … you wanted to stick it to them. They gave you a lot of reasons to try to ruin their days.”

Don’t get it twisted, though. Despite how bright the rivalry burned, Kiermaier still has plenty of respect for what those Jays clubs, and Bautista in particular, achieved.

“[Bautista] was a king here and is still treated like one, from what the guys tell me. Rightfully so,” said Kiermaier. “He put his heart into the city. [He’s] one of the most iconic Blue Jays ever, with some of the moments that he had.”

The Bautista-era Blue Jays were certainly a bullheaded bunch, but their results were undeniable.

“It's like you're coming in and you're saying, ‘Okay, this is who we are. And we're here, and we're going to kick your ass and then do it again the next day,’” said Jays manager John Schneider, assessing the Blue Jays squads of 2015 and 2016.

Schneider was a minor-league manager in the organization during the Josh Donaldson-Bautista-Edwin Encarnacion heyday. He remembered one spring training throwing three entire crates of baseballs to a hitting group of Bautista, Kevin Pillar, and Chris Colabello, among others.

By the end of the two-hour session, Bautista complained that Schneider’s practice tosses were starting to sink.

“I’m on throw one million. I’m hanging in there,” Schneider laughed.

As those deep playoff runs unfolded, Bautista became a role model to a lot of aspiring minor-leaguers, Schneider said. That’s why the Jays skipper will encourage his current roster to go out and observe Bautista’s pre-game tribute Saturday as a reminder of what’s possible.

“It just really kind of opens your eyes a little bit to how special a group can be and how you can be really remembered for a long time by doing some pretty cool things in big moments,” Schneider said.

The Blue Jays, who’ve lacked execution in big moments this year, could use a reminder. The offence has been moderately successful, but it has withered with men on base. Before Friday’s game, Toronto owned a .685 OPS with runners in scoring position. Only the Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals were worse.

“We kind of overthink it and get a little jumpy or antsy rather than letting the game come to us like any other at-bat,” Kiermaier said, diagnosing the Jays’ RISP woes. “So it's something we've talked about as a group a lot, especially the last month or so. We know we need to be better, and we're striving towards that.”

Kiermaier said he believes there’s such a thing as a “clutch gene,” where hitters slow their heartbeats and zero in. Bautista was excellent with RISP (.859 OPS). Evan Longoria, Kiermaier’s longtime Tampa teammate, was also great at delivering in the clutch (.811 career OPS with RISP).

“[Longoria] was always super aggressive,” Kiermaier said. “I remember that. But he had a great plan for what he was trying to do, and I saw him do it off some of the nastiest pitchers in baseball … he was always ready for everything, especially in those situations.”

This year, the Blue Jays have been “playing cat and mouse,” Kiermaier said, often thinking about what pitch they might see instead of just gripping and ripping. Less hesitancy and more assertion are needed.

The ’23 Blue Jays might have a little less pop and a far cozier demeanour than the ‘15 and ’16 days, but there’s fire on this roster, too, certainly enough to drag Toronto to a postseason berth and beyond. Now it’s time to carve a new legacy.

“We’ve got the guys to do it,” Kiermaier said. “So this is when it becomes really fun. The dog days of August. Find out who the gamers are. Because this time moving forward is crucial, and we want to win. And we're gonna do whatever it takes.”