Bautista: 'I wasn't listening' to critics who thought I was finished

Injuries sidelined Jose Bautista in 2016, limiting him to 116 games played. He then went unsigned in free agency for months before the Toronto Blue Jays, his team since 2008, finally signed him to a one-year deal in January.

The narrative that an angry Bautista had something to prove bubbled prior to the beginning of the season. The Blue Jays had just made back-to-back postseason berths after two-plus decades of being on the outside looking in.

But his season limped out of the gate. He didn't hit a home run until April 21, his 16th game of the season. As recently as May 8, Bautista was hitting a pathetic .169. Critics said he was done. However, Bautista told The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo that he's tuned out the doubters.

"I wasn’t listening, if that’s what people were saying," Bautista said. "I think that’s an easy thing to say based on the numbers at the time, but all I know is that my timing was off. I wasn’t in the rhythm that I personally need to be in. I had to find that timing back again, that’s the way my swing is. I feel it’s come back. I was swinging at bad pitches and the ones I was swinging at that were good, I was missing because of the timing."

He's seems to have found that rhythm again. In the 12 games since May 8, Bautista has hit .405 with five home runs, raising his season batting average to .231. To his point about missing good pitches, he's struck out only 15.7 percent of the time over his past dozen games after being punched out in 30.3 percent of his plate appearances prior to that.

Both statistical selections are based on small sample sizes, and baseball is a game of ebbs and flows. For the time being, even if the Blue Jays are struggling, Bautista looks like his old self at the dish.