Agent: ‘Encarnacion’s Number One Choice Would Be to Stay in Toronto’

Free agency has only been open a few days, but the Toronto Blue Jays and Edwin Encarnacion have already reportedly had some intense discussions about a potential multi-year contract.

While most agents are typically tight-lipped when it comes to their client’s desires, it’s been refreshing to hear Paul Kinzer be pretty open about Edwin Encarnacion’s desire and want to stay with the Blue Jays.

Kinzer had a few notable tidbits during his interview on the Jeff Blair Show earlier this morning – namely that Kinzer expects a deal to be struck soon (at the latest, by the Winter Meetings).

Last night, Paul Kinzer also spoke to Bryan Hayes on TSN Overdrive and was pretty candid about his client’s preferred destination:

(Edwin’s) number one choice would be to stay in Toronto. Basically, we have four destinations where he’d like to go, and three of them are in play at this time.

Later in the interview, Paul Kinzer also said this:

This is his time to get paid, and he’d prefer to get paid in Toronto. Our goal is to get to five years, we’re at least going to get to four.

So there’s the bare minimum for Edwin Encarnacion’s camp; at least a four-year contract. But the one constant through this entire process which has been continually reiterated is Edwin Encarnacion’s preference to re-sign with the Blue Jays.

I wrote about this briefly earlier today – that it may not be all about the money for Edwin Encarnacion – and Paul Kinzer even mentioned that directly during his spot on TSN.

It sounds like this thing is going to get done sooner rather than later, maybe not necessarily with the Blue Jays, but Encarnacion and his camp don’t seem like they want to drag this thing out to extract the most money possible.

That’s good news for the Blue Jays – Edwin Encarnacion has a clear desire to remain as a Blue Jay. But we don’t know whether Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins have an equal desire to bring him back on at least a four-year contract.