Road To The Bat Flip (Part I): Opening Day

Part 1 of a 4-part series looking back on one of Baseball's most iconic moments from the last decade...

Blue Jays fans know the call. It’s a “where-were-you-when” moment, seared into our collective consciousness like few others. It was the payoff for a wild inning of a wild game of a wild series of a wild season. Even today, almost ten years later, it inspires excitement, awe, and jubilation.

“The 1-1 from Dyson. Bautista with a drive, deep left field, no doubt about it!”

It wasn’t a walk-off, but it sure felt like it.

When Jose Bautista connected bat to ball on the third pitch in his seventh inning at bat during Game Five of the American League Division Series in 2015, the three-run home run cemented his legacy as a Toronto Blue Jay. When he flipped his bat a second later, he secured his place in baseball—and pop culture—history.

“There was no script,” he later wrote in a piece for The Player’s Tribune. “I didn’t plan it. It just happened. I flipped my bat.”

Born in the Dominican Republic, he had risen through the baseball ranks from a journeyman infielder, traded in 2011 to the Jays for “a player to be named later,” to one of the most prolific power hitters in recent memory. He “quietly” hit 54 home runs five years earlier in 2010, and had followed it up with 43 in 2011. But the Blue Jays’ lack of playoff success kept Bautista’s accomplishments obscured.

When the 2015 season started, the Blue Jays had the longest active streak of seasons without a playoff appearance. Canada’s only remaining MLB team had been shut out of the postseason since Joe Carter hit his walk-off home run in Game Six of the 1993 World Series. The Jays were long overdue for a playoff appearance.

Bautista was among those leading the charge for the Jays to return to the playoffs. And not just on the field, as a clubhouse leader, he was pushing the team to play October baseball.

He now had a signature moment, one that resonated throughout the sporting world. “The Bat Flip” became a meme and a flashpoint, igniting discussions about showboating and unsportsmanlike behaviour. The Texas Rangers, who were on the receiving end of the Bat Flip, certainly didn’t care for it, a fact they made known the following season. But Bautista would have the last laugh. Every team now has their own post-home run ritual, a trend that can be traced back to The Bat Flip.

Like any great sporting moment, at the start of the 2015 season, it was far from a sure thing. Not only was the 7th inning of game five one of the wildest on record, but the Blue Jays’ route to the playoffs was unusual. There were false starts, missteps, and any number of points when the wheels could have come off. The team was sitting at .500 at the All-Star Break and looked poised to make another disappointing finish.

What followed was a remarkable turnaround, the sort every team in a tough spot hopes for but few ever achieve. While Bautista led the charge on the field, leading the charge behind the scenes was the 38-year old, Montreal-born, general manager Alex Anthopoulos. In his sixth, and ultimately final, season as Blue Jays’ GM, Anthopoulos took the leaps of faith necessary to get his team back to the playoffs for the first time in over twenty years.

Motivated by a desire to win, pushed by his star to go for it, and perhaps sensing his days were numbered, Anthopolous made blockbuster trade after blockbuster trade. He bolstered an already impressive lineup and took a big swing of his own towards reaching the promised land.

False Start: The 2013 Season

To understand the 2015 Blue Jays season, we have to understand the 2013 season first. 2013 was meant to be the year the Jays finally broke through, ending their playoff drought, and bringing a championship back to a city starved for one.

Alex Anthopoulos was heading into his fourth season as GM. Thus far, his tenure had been defined by trades sending beloved players out of town. One of his first tasks in 2009, right after taking over the job from his predecessor, J.P. Riccardi (under whom he had served as Assistant GM for four years), was trading star pitcher Roy “Doc” Halladay.

Doc had spent the first 12 years of his professional career in the Blue Jays organization, establishing himself not only as the team’s ace but as one of the best pitchers in baseball. He was named to the All-Star team six times and won the American League Cy Young award for best pitcher in 2003. After the 2009 season, when it became clear that the Jays weren’t going to be competitive anytime soon, Doc requested a trade out of town. Anthopoulos made the best of it, trading the right-handed starter to the Philadelphia Phillies for three top prospects.

The following offseason, in early 2011, the GM shipped another beloved Jay, Vernon Wells, out of town in another blockbuster trade. Wells had been with the organization for as long as Halladay, and their departures in successive offseasons indicated that the Jays saw their best route to success as coming through a rebuild. For a fanbase that hadn’t seen the playoffs in almost two decades, this was not welcome news.

To add insult to injury, after the 2012 season, Anthopoulos had to trade his handpicked manager, John Farrell, to division rival the Boston Red Sox.

Farrell had been hired as the Blue Jays’ manager after Cito Gaston retired. Gaston was winding down his second stint as Jays manager when Anthopoulos was promoted to GM ahead of the 2010 season. And though he hadn’t had as much success as during his first run, when he led the team to back-to-back World Series Championships in 1992 and 1993, he was still a beloved figure among fans. The 2010 Jays season ended with a huge tribute to Gaston and his devotion to the team over the last two decades.

Farrell, meanwhile, had been the pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox from 2007 to 2010 when Anthopoulos hired him as Jays manager ahead of the 2011 season. While Farrell’s time in Toronto was unremarkable, the team finished fourth in the AL East both seasons and only played .500 baseball in one of them, his departure was anything but.

Following the 2012 season, the Red Sox were going through an identity crisis of their own. They’d fired Terry Francona, who’d led the team to its first World Series win in 84 years in 2004, after the 2011 season. His replacement, Bobby Valentine, lasted just one last-place, scandal-filled season before being shown the door in October 2012. The Bosox front office turned its eye towards the man they had initially hoped would replace Francona: Farrell.

The Red Sox had approached the Jays about speaking to Farrell when they fired Francona after the 2011 season, but the Blue Jays turned them down. In 2012, Farrell appealed to Anthopoulos to let him pursue his dream job in Boston. This time, the Blue Jays relented.

“I was very candid and honest with them,” Farrell said at the press conference announcing him as the 45th manager in Red Sox history. “And when it came up again this year on the heels of two extensive days of conversations in a year-end reviews, I expressed the same interest again, and fortunately, all parties were able to work out this trade.”

The “trade” had the Blue Jays send pitcher David Carpenter to the Red Sox for infielder Mike Aviles. The deal was contingent upon Farrell and the Red Sox reaching a deal to make him manager, at which point he was released from his contract with the Jays. Though they got something back, it was a black mark on an organization that was already perceived as being the “younger brother” to its division rivals in Boston and New York.

This was the baggage Anthopoulos was bringing into the MLB winter meetings, where team executives met in California in November 2012 to discuss business relating to baseball and work out potential deals ahead of the 2013 season.

During the meetings, the Jays flipped the switch on the doom-and-gloom narrative. Anthopoulos pulled off a massive, blockbuster trade with the Miami Marlins, acquiring starting pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, shortstop Jose Reyes, utility infielder Emilio Bonifacio, and catcher John Buck. Reyes was viewed as one of the best shortstops in baseball, while Johnson and Buehrle were expected to be top-of-the-rotation starters. It was a big deal.

Two days later, the Jays added another exciting piece by signing free agent outfielder Melky Cabrera to a two-year, $16 million contract. The deal was not without controversy, however, as Cabrera was coming off a 50-game suspension the year prior for using performance-enhancing drugs. But the suspension had been served, and Cabrera was eligible for Opening Day, so the Jays took a chance on him.

Keeping the moves rolling, Anthopoulos surprised everyone when he hired John Gibbons as the team’s new manager. Gibbons, or Gibby as he was known amongst fans and players, had previously been the manager of the Jays from 2004 to 2008. He had been known as something of a firebrand, getting into altercations with players like Ted Lilly and Shea Hillenbrand. The team hadn’t experienced much success during his first tenure, but he and Anthopoulos had gotten along, so he was brought back.

The new/old manager was as surprised as anybody that he got the job again. In his book, Gibby: Tales of Baseball Lifer, Gibbons recalls his meeting with Anthopoulos when the GM first broached the idea of coming back. “I warned Alex that I wasn’t very popular the first go-round and things weren’t really that good,” writes Gibbons. “But I also told him I’d love to manage for him, if he could pull it off.”

Anthopoulos did pull it off, convincing Blue Jays president Paul Beeston and team ownership at Rogers Communications that Gibby was the right man for the job.

There was still one final move left to be made. The Blue Jays still didn’t have an ace, the sort of elite starting pitcher who can lead a pitching staff and win twenty games or more a season regularly. Not since Doc’s departure had the Blue Jays had an arm like that in their rotation. So it’s fitting that they traded many of the pieces they got back in the Doc trade for who they hoped would be their next ace.

On December 17th, 2012, the Jays traded for 2012 National League Cy Young Winner RA Dickey. The team sent Noah Syndergaard, Travis D'Arnaud, John Buck, and Wuilmer Becerra to the New York Mets in return.

Dickey was not your typical ace. Early in his career, doctors discovered a missing ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, which limited his ability to pitch effectively in the major leagues. This led him to become a knuckleball pitcher, relying on the erratic motion created by throwing the ball with extremely limited spin to fool batters. He eventually found his way with the Mets, leading up to his dominant 2012 season.

The pieces were all in place. The roster had been remade thanks to trades and free agent signings. Not to mention the up and coming returners, guys like third baseman Brett Lawrie and catcher JP Arencibia, who were expected to have breakout years. Plus, Bautista’s 54 and 43 home run seasons in 2010 and 2011 still loomed large, and Edwin Encarnacion had just broken out with 42 home runs in 2012. The Jays looked poised to return to the playoffs twenty years after their last World Series.

Then, the games started, and it all came crashing down.

The 2013 Toronto Blue Jays season was an unmitigated disaster. The team finished last in the AL East, with a dismal 74-88 record. Many of the offseason acquisitions didn’t pan out, or at least didn’t pan out as well as expected. Johnson was a massive disappointment, winning just two games with an ERA of .620. Dickey had a 14-13 record and a .421 ERA, decent for a knuckleballer but definitely not ace material. Reyes and Cabrera missed a lot of the season due to injury. Meanwhile, returners Lawrie and Arencibia both failed to take a step forward, with Arencibia actually taking a sizable step back, hitting only .196.

The lone bright spot that season was the emergence of Munenori Kawasaki, a journeyman infielder from Japan. Kawasaki had signed a minor league deal with the Jays in the offseason and was brought up to replace Reyes when he was injured in April. He would be up and down between the majors and the minors throughout the season, but his colourful interview quotes and vibrant personality made him a favourite among teammates and fans.

So, despite all of Anthopolous’ wheeling and dealing in the offseason, the 2013 Blue Jays season ended the same way all the other ones since 1993 had. Only this time, the embarrassment was heightened as the expectations had been so much greater. Before the season, many had picked the Blue Jays as World Series favourites. Instead, they missed the playoffs and finished last in their division.

The icing on top of the depressing cake: the 2013 World Series was won by the Boston Red Sox, managed by John Farrell.

Let’s Try This Again

The Blue Jays did manage to improve on their dismal 2013 performance in 2014. They posted a winning record, going 83-79, but still only finished third in the division, well outside the playoff picture. With the end of his contract looming in 2015, Anthopoulos went to work again remaking the team ahead of what would potentially be his final campaign as GM.

His first moves, while not the most impressive at the time, wound up being important ones. On November 1st, 2014, the Blue Jays traded first baseman/designated hitter Adam Lind to the Milwaukee Brewers for starting pitcher Marco Estrada. Less than two weeks later, the Jays acquired infielder prospect Devon Travis from the Detroit Tigers. Though he had not yet made his major league debut, Travis would play an important role down the stretch and into the playoffs for the Jays in 2015, as would Estrada. But the big moves were yet to come.

It’s rarer than you might think to have Canadian-born players on the Blue Jays. As Canada’s only MLB team, you’d think they would have the market cornered. But this was not the case, and the team has rarely had more than one and they usually aren’t a big star. This all changed, however, on November 18th, 2014, when the Jays made a deal to bring one of Canada’s sons home.

Russell Martin, a catcher who spent years with the LA Dodgers, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates, signed a five-year, $82 million contract with the Blue Jays. Martin, who was born in Toronto but moved to Montreal when he was two, was the star of the show when the Jays played two exhibition games at Olympic Stadium at the end of spring training. Martin received a standing ovation from the Montreal fans, who had lost their MLB team, the Montreal Expos, 11 years earlier. If he couldn’t play for the Expos, playing for the Jays was a pretty decent homecoming.

But the GM wasn’t finished yet.

As discussed, so much of Anthopoulos’ early time with the Jays was defined by who he sent out of town, but on November 28th, 2014, he finally made a trade that would define his legacy based on who he brought to town. The Blue Jays traded Lawrie and a handful of other players to the Oakland A’s for third baseman Josh Donaldson. Donaldson would quickly establish himself as a dominant force on the Jays and in the big leagues.

Once again, Anthopoulos remade the Blue Jays lineup in the offseason. Donaldson and Martin had shored up two key positions at third and catcher, while Travis was so impressive in spring training that he was named starting second baseman. They joined a team that still included Bautista, Encarnacion, and Reyes. And, young outfielders Kevin Pillar and Daulton Pompey (another Canadian, born in Mississauga, Ontario) were also expected to take a step forward after promising results in 2014.

The pitching rotation was still something of a question mark, however. Dickey and Buerhle remained as steady, mid-rotation pitchers, and the Blue Jays had big things in mind for Drew Hutchison, but there were many questions about who would surround them. After another highly touted young Jays pitcher, Marcus Stroman, tore his ACL in spring training, the competition for the final spots came down to Estrada, Aaron Sanchez, and Daniel Norris. Norris and Sanchez would prevail, and Estrada began the season in the bullpen. There, he joined prospects Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna, who impressed in spring training and earned spots on the opening day roster.

The changes weren’t as drastic as those made in the 2013 offseason. And the expectations weren’t quite as sky high as they had been two years earlier. But there were enough exciting pieces on the board that fans could feel hopeful heading into the new season. The mood around the city was optimistic about the team’s chances, though the sting of 2013 still kept things realistic.

And on April 6th, 2015, it was finally time to find out if this year would be different. The moves were made, and the roster was set.

It was time to play ball.

Game 1 of 162

Perhaps more so than any other team in professional sports, the New York Yankees tend to steal the spotlight in any game they’re in. The team’s history and recent success are so intertwined with that of baseball as a whole that it can overshadow almost anything.

Opening Day of the 2015 season was no different. Heading into game 1 of 162 at Yankee Stadium, all eyes were on the Yankees. And with good reason. It was the franchise’s first year after Derek Jeter’s retirement. Jeter had been the face of the team for parts of three decades, and it was tough to imagine Yankees baseball without #2.

Also of note, the game saw the major league return of Alex Rodriguez, who had been suspended for the entirety of the 2014 season for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. (Side note: If you are unfamiliar with Biogenesis and the 2013 scandal, the 2018 documentary Screwball retells the story in a way that’s hilarious and insightful.)

All this to say, the Blue Jays, despite all their offseason moves, were definitely the “second team” in that first game of the season.

This is not to say there wasn’t pressure. Pro athletes are always under immense pressure to perform, and the offseason moves, combined with the false start of 2013, meant the Jays were eager to get out there and start proving themselves. And, they got off to a pretty good start.

Gibbons selected Hutchison as the opening day starter. After missing the 2013 season due to injury, the young right-hander made his big league debut in 2014 and became a regular in the rotation. He looked poised to take another step in 2015, so the team made him the youngest opening day starter in franchise history at just 24 years old.

Hutchison acquitted himself well, throwing six strong innings, giving up just three hits and one earned run. It was enough to secure his first win of the season, as the Jays beat the Yankees 6-1.

The offense came alive in the third inning, when the Jays scored 5 runs. Russell Martin got his first his as Jay, and Edwin Encarnacion hit his first home run of the season. Devon Travis would later get his first career hit, a solo home run, in the seventh inning. Martin would also make his presence known defensively, catching Yankees speedster Didi Gregorius stealing with a perfect throw to Donaldson at third.

Bautista, meanwhile, went 0-5. The Dominican slugger got off to a slow start at Yankee Stadium, though there were early signs that he hadn’t lost his signature pop. In the third inning, he narrowly mistimed a swing on a fastball from Yankees’ starter Masahiro Tanaka. Instead of the home run he was hoping for, he popped out to left field. Frustrated though he was at the plate, he still showed his defensive prowess, tracking down fly balls in right field throughout the game.

Overall, it was a good start for the Jays. The new players were settling in, and the returners showed that they still had it. But the Major League Baseball season is a grind, and it’s important not to get too excited, or too worried, about any one game.

As Travis said after the game, “It’s just game one out of 162.”

To be continued…