Verlander Defends Bautista in World Series Tweet

Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

First things first: what a game last night. What. A. Game.

It’s not every time that a Game Seven in a championship series lives up to the possibilities it presents to us, but the last game of the 2016 MLB season sure as hell delivered. And as dangerous as it can be to rush too hard into calling something an instant classic, we should have no such reservations about what took place at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Wednesday night.

It still hurts that the Jays weren’t there — that they weren’t the team to solve Andrew Miller and make the comeback from 3-1 that the Cubs did — but that took little, if nothing, away from the epic curse-breaking Cubs win, and the hilarious near-comeback powered by Rajai effing Davis.

But enough about these teams that lost to the Jays in a parallel, some might say better, universe: let’s talk about a year-old bat flip!

But it’s not me who’s bringing this up, it’s Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander who did so early on in last night’s epic:

Hear, hear!

Which is to say… thank you, Justin, for some Blue Jays-related World Series content!

And speaking of Jose Bautista, with the World Series now in the books — and a hearty congrats to Jimmy, our resident Buck Martinez impersonator, for his Cubbies win! — Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are now free agents. Benny Fresh tweets to remind us that the Jays now have five days of exclusive negotiating rights with the two, along with their other free agents, Michael Saunders, Brett Cecil, R.A. Dickey, Dioner Navarro, Joaquin Benoit, Scott Feldman, and Gavin Floyd.

Don’t hold your breath for anything to happen on that front, but it’s at least notable that the process is underway.

And as for Verlander’s comment, obviously I’m in vigorous agreement on the subject of fun. Hey, and it’s only three-and-a-half months until pitchers and catchers report!