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Blue Jays by the numbers: Jose Bautista putting finishing touches on elite season

Israel Fehr
(Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
(Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

Even if once again he won't have the opportunity to play in the postseason, Jose Bautista is putting the finishing touches on another tremendous year with the Blue Jays.

Heading into the season's final weekend, Bautista is tied for second in the majors in OBP (.409) and is top-5 in home runs (35) and fWAR (6.4). He's continued to display his sharp batting eye, sitting in second in walks (104) and BB% (15.7%) among all qualified batters. For the traditionalists, he's top-5 in runs scored (101) and top-10 in RBI (103). Simply put, by any statistical measure, Bautista has been one of the premier offensive players in baseball.

After injuries ended his last two seasons prematurely, the 33-year-old right fielder has been able to stay in the lineup all year and has delivered at the plate game after game.

His evolution as a hitter is perhaps the most impressive aspect of his play this season. Bautista has been forced to adjust his approach as team's have used more infield shifts against him to counter his pull-hitting tendencies. Between 2010-2013, only 13% of his hits went to right field. This year, that number jumped to 21%.

While Mike Trout is unquestionably the AL MVP, Dave Cameron writes at Fangraphs that Bautista's name deserves to be on the upper half of the ballot.

Bautista has been mostly overlooked because we’ve gotten used to him putting up .400 wOBAs on non-contending teams, but he remains one of the game’s very best hitters, and he’s not a big negative on the field or the bases. He might not be the best hitter in baseball anymore, but he’s still one of the best players in the sport.

But even as Bautista shines, the Blue Jays can't get over the hump. "What I really want, is to play in the playoffs," he told Yahoo's Jeff Passan in June. "The fact that it hasn't happened is frustrating. You also know that there's a lot of things out of your control that have to go right."

"I think we’re really close," general manager Alex Anthopoulos told the Toronto Star after the inevitable became official and Toronto was mathematically eliminated from the wild-card race.

For five years now Bautista has been the beating heart of the Blue Jays. This year, he did everything in his control to push Toronto towards the postseason and it wasn't enough. He's got two years left on his team-friendly contract and soon "really close" won't be good enough. One of the best players in baseball deserves better.