Jose Bautista's five-year deal worth a guaranteed $65 million marks the largest contract Alex Anthopoulos has handed out since he was put in charge following the 2009 season. Anthopoulos understands where that talk is coming from but feels in this case, the potential reward outweighs the risk. "The easy thing for me would have been to sit back and wait," Anthopoulos explained to a group of reporters Thursday evening. "If he didn't perform, nobody could criticize me for that. If he does perform, people could certainly make excuses for me and say, 'Well, how do you pay him after one [good] year?' "That's the easy way out. If I ultimately believe in the player, and I ultimately believe in the performance, and that he's going to be a very good player for us ... then that's my job irrespective of the criticism. The risks [are] part of it, but that's part of what I do."