MLB Rumors: Cleveland Indians emerge as candidate to sign Jose Bautista

According to a report by Ken Rosenthal, the Cleveland Indians could end up reuniting Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

The Cleveland Indians already made the biggest splash in free agency when they signed Edwin Encarnacion to a three-year, $60 million deal which was well below his market value. However, that might not be the only Toronto Blue Jays player that they sign.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the Indians are staying in touch with a number of free agents at multiple positions, including corner infield, corner outfield, and relief pitching. Jose Bautista is one of those free agents, but they would only sign him if his price drops.

A big reason why the Indians were able to sign Encarnacion for the amount of money that they did was because his market grew smaller during the offseason. Once regarded as one of the biggest names in this free agent class, his value decreased when teams decided to focus on other positions of need.

Many people also felt that Encarnacion’s agent set the price too high at five years and $125 million. Once people didn’t bite at that deal, they had to keep low-balling before settling on $20 million a year.

So far, we’re seeing Bautista’s market shrink just like his former teammate’s did. To date, the only reported offer the Blue Jays have given him was a one-year, $17.2 million deal, and he rejected it. Even though getting Bautista would be a massive coup for the Indians, they still must give up another compensatory draft pick for him in addition to offering him a lot of money.

However, the addition of Bautista would give the Indians two of the best hitters from this free agent class, and it would fill a need for them. One of Cleveland’s biggest question marks this year is the outfield. Rajai Davis signed a one-year deal with the Oakland Athletics, while Michael Brantley — his replacement — is coming off of a season in which he only played 11 games.

Up until this point, Bautista’s return to Toronto seemed like an inevitability, especially after they lost Edwin. But with this report emerging, the Blue Jays need to negotiate a deal sooner rather than later. It’s bad enough that they lost to the Indians in the playoffs — losing two of their best players to them in the offseason would just add insult to injury.

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To be clear, this is still far from a done deal. Rosenthal stated that the Indians might just end up signing minor league free agents, especially since money remains a contentious issue with them. But even without Bautista, Cleveland remains one of, if not the, best teams in the American League. And given the disappointing nature of their World Series loss, it’s no surprise that they’re going for it.

No matter what happens the rest of this offseason, the Indians should remain a favorite to get back to the World Series.