Mark Teixeira, now ESPN analyst, went on The Michael Kay Show and lambasted Jose Bausista.
In case you missed it, Bautista bat flipped against the Braves on Wednesday night after hitting a solo home run in the 8th inning. Bat flipping is kind of Bautista’s thing, but there’s obviously going to be an issue when it’s done in an 8-3 May ballgame.
Jose Bautista just styled a solo HR that cut the Braves lead to 8-4.
God, the Blue Jays are such losers. pic.twitter.com/d2Hb9HkBc7
— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) May 18, 2017
When asked about Bautista’s bat flip in the meaningless situation, Teixiera responded: “The fact of the matter is, no one really likes Jose Bautista.” Mark went on to explain that bat flipping in a big situation, like the time Jose did it against the Rangers in the postseason, is totally acceptable. Showing-up a team when you’re already losing by 5 runs is not only disrespectful to the opposition, but to your teammates as well because it displays selfishness.
I appreciate Teixeira’s candidness. Ex-athletes turned analysts usually don’t have strong opinions because they don’t want to offend their former colleagues. Teixeira is not holding any punches by telling it like it is, that Bautista is kind of an ass and it’s known around the league.
Later in the interview, Kay asked if there would be retaliation (which there was) against Bautista. Teixeira said, “That’s on the table every night. I’ve been in clubhouses where guys just look at the starting pitcher for that night’s game and said ‘just please hit Bautista for me.'”
Love it! It’s not just fans who dislike Joey Bats, but players all around baseball hate him as well.
You may also remember Dan Duquette saying a reason the Orioles didn’t go after Bautista this offseason is because fans hated him.
Listen to the full interview with Teixeira here.
