Jose Bautista Crashes Children's Hospital In Toronto

He's one of the biggest free agents in baseball ... but Jose Bautista is still doing big things in Toronto!

Bautista -- who just became a free agent after 8 years with the Blue Jays -- surprised a bunch of young fans at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto this weekend ... to spread some holiday cheer.

We're told Jose was in town to hit some holiday parties -- but felt it was important to carve some time out of his schedule to kick it with some of his biggest supporters.

Jose spent about an hour in the ward visiting with some brave kids fighting cancer who also happened to be HUGE Blue Jays fans (maybe some of them tried to convince him to re-sign with Toronto!)

Good stuff.