Major League Baseball

Jays GM Atkins won't publicly address Jose Bautista talks

Published Feb. 23, 2016 2:33 p.m. ET

foxsports

DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) New Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins wouldn't publicly address Jose Bautista's stance on what it would take for Toronto to sign him to a deal beyond 2016.

A day after Bautista said he and his agent had told Toronto two weeks ago what kind of agreement he wanted, Atkins said ''it doesn't need to be public and it won't be from our end.''

''To me, it's not a cloud,'' Atkins said Tuesday. ''To me, it's really clear we've had really clear, effective communication. There is no ambiguity. We can focus on playing baseball - Jose feels good about doing that.''