Music: {allcanada} Bautista's endorsement deal is a sign he's crossed a threshold from baseball player to star.

They lined up in the rain in downtown Toronto Thursday, waiting to get an autograph. To shake hands, share a smile and take a picture.

They also got an answer to the question that has lingered around the Jose Bautista's eye-popping production for more than a year now.

Yes, he's on the juice but not that kind of juice.

The occasion of Bautista's meet-and-greet with fans was for his first ever product endorsement deal – itself a sign that he's crossed a threshold from baseball player to star.

The company is Booster Juice, purveyors of fine fruit-based smoothies.

(Full disclosure: I love smoothies.)

There's addressing the elephant in the room, and there's smacking it right in the face.

The whispers about how exactly Bautista transformed from a light-hitting major league journeyman, to perhaps the game's best player have faded since they began in earnest a year ago, as he headed into the All-Star break with a major league-leading 24 home runs and then got hot and hit 30 in the second half.

Going from a career-high 16 dingers to 54 was the kind of jump that defied belief and some were quick to speculate that only performance enhancing drugs – juicing could explain it.

Bautista did his part to put the questions to rest by never ducking them and -- perhaps more importantly -- by continuing to add polish to his skills at the plate.

His latest trick has been to turn himself into a .330 hitter without losing power while the baseball chattering classes – having spent nearly 15 years being shown over and over again that steroids and other drugs do enhance performance – can't help but be the suspicious types.

But as Bautista's range of skills at the plate continues to grow and his unflappable character emerges, it has helped lift the cloud the industry has laboured under for so long.

Bautista's story – incredible as it is – is seemingly safe to believe in. His improvement lends credence to the possibility that he is simply a gifted late bloomer, whose physical skills have been bolstered by a lightning bolt of self-knowledge.

The result is a second straight 'are you kidding me?' season, a growing celebrity and now the first of what his management team expect will be a number of national endorsement deals.

It's a great story.

But would a car deal not have been a safer first choice?

To his credit Bautista gets the joke – baseball's premier post-steroid era slugger endorses Booster Juice, as in: it really is the juice.

Hilarious, right?

"It's a bit funny, ya," Bautista said in a pause between autographs. "I can see why some people would think so, yes."

Okay, maybe it's just me.

But Bautista is sincere about what it means to be a company spokesman as the Jays haven't had a player appear in a national campaign since the glory days of the 90's and Roberto Alomar was telling kids to "catch the taste" on behalf of McCain Foods.

But Alomar was a blue blood star for the Jays and the biggest story in Canadian sports. It wasn't two years ago that Bautista was on his last legs as a major league prospect and the Jays were mired in yet another irrelevant season.

Now he's the record-setting vote getter for the All-Star game, a legitimate MVP candidate and a clubhouse presence so revered the Jays feel comfortable adding players with some dents in their background – Yunel Escobar and now Colby Rasmus – in the belief Bautista's leadership will set them on the right path.

No longer irrelevant, the Jays have buzz, and Bautista is the unquestioned straw that stirs the smoothie.

"To have an opportunity like this is very special. It's not every day you get to strike a deal with a great company that kind of shares the same philosophy in life that you do on a personal level – promoting a healthy life style," he says. "… This is my first endorsement deal outside of baseball, so it's something that is going to be a treat. It will be fun to see what we can come up with."

The deal – for three years with an option for a fourth -- came together pretty quickly, so the exact tone of the advertising campaign hasn't been settled on yet, according to Booster Juice's Edmonton-based founder Dale Wishewan.

All that's certain is Bautista will be featured in a series of commercials that will broadcast nationally, a billboard campaign and a life-sized cutout of the slugger will be featured in all of the growing chain's 265 Canadian stores.

Will they meet the joke head on? Will Bautista be telling Canadians that his incredible power is fueled by 'the juice' followed by a long tug on smoothie and a big fat wink?

Bautista's okay with it.

"I'll address it at the time," he says. "As long as it's portrayed the right way, I don't see why not."