It is sounding like more than a rumor. At the moment it looks like Jose Bautista will be getting $65 million over 5 years with a club option for a 6th year at the same $13 million. Ken Rosenthal is saying it is a done deal but we haven't heard yet from the Jays.
I'm not really against him getting $13 million a year, even if he loses a lot of the value he had this last year, he could very well be worth more than $13 million. It is a longer contract than I would have wanted to sign him to but then there needed to be something to give Jose incentive to sign.
They will be overpaying for the first year because they likely would have won in arbitration and have only had to pay Jose $7.6 million next year. If Jose had won it would have been $10.5, so, unless the contract is backloaded we are giving him more than we had to for next year.
It is a contract with risks for both sides. If Jose hits 30+ home runs this coming year, he would have been able to get a lot more money as a free agent. For the Jays the risk is that he goes back to being the player he was before last year. I really think the chances of that happening is slim. We all watched him last year. It wasn't like he was getting lucky, wind blown homers. He was crushing the ball. He also had bad luck on BABIP, so if that evens out a bit, his batting average could climb.
So it is an interesting deal. Alex Anthopoulos is showing he isn't afraid to sign big contracts that could blow up in his face. Clearly he thinks the improvement was no fluke. It is a nice sign to us fans that the club will be willing to spend when they feel it is appropriate.