TORONTO — For ten years, Bo Bichette has represented the future in Toronto. Now, suddenly, he is a memory.
Bichette agreed to a three-year, $126 million deal with the Mets, another short-term, big-money deal that comes one day after Kyle Tucker signed a four-year, $240 million deal with the Dodgers. For many Blue Jays fans, the mind may have been rooting for Tucker, but the heart was rooting for Bichette.
Even with the interesting moves that have already been made and the addition of Kazuma Okamoto to the infield, Bichette made a lot of baseball sense in Toronto, where he would play second base after growing up shortstop. The Blue Jays rely on traditional, long-term deals, however, while these short-term deals continue to plague the rest of the market. The realities of business have been looming over Bichette for years, but now they are here.
In the early days, Bichette’s name always had the word “and” in front of it. It was Vladdy and Bo, two young stars with famous fathers who came to save the Blue Jays. As the sun set on José Bautista, Josh Donaldson and the faces of that 2015-16 postseason run, the sound of all doors closing was interrupted by the hopes of Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
There was that famous photo at High-A Dunedin, when Bichette and Guerrero pitched American baseballlooking back over their shoulders and four. It was just the boys then, Guerrero with a bright smile and braids, Bichette smiling, that long hair still sticking out of his hat. They came up through the Minor Leagues together, eventually hiring John Schneider as their manager in Double-A.
Schneider joked that it felt like managing a boy band. Bichette and Guerrero were the stars, two teenagers who had baseball fans lining up in front of hotels and chasing their team bus down the street. When 2019 began, Guerrero was already the No. Their works were created together. They were everything the Blue Jays could hope for in those early days.
The last image we have of Bichette — and one that should last forever — is his three-run home run off Shohei Ohtani in Game 7 of the World Series. Bichette had spent seven weeks undergoing knee surgery to return to the World Series, where he posted the second-longest hitting streak in franchise history, behind Joe Carter. Well, it’s still on the list, and we’re going to see the highlight of the year, Bichette filling the midfield and moving out of the box. It was as if the Blue Jays had just slain a dragon and Bichette held the sword.
Players like Bichette are not easy to find. The Blue Jays will continue to try to develop one, but that could take years. The Blue Jays are in contention for the World Series right here, right now, and while they’ve had a great season so far, another at-bat is still needed to keep the momentum going. Bichette’s bat has actually been replaced by Okamoto, and while it’s easy to bet on a bounce-back from Anthony Santander after a bad 2025 season, the realities of baseball demand that we also look at what could go wrong. In order to both raise the ceiling for this roster and cover themselves, the Blue Jays need to keep coming in.
This is now a complicated market to do that, though. Cody Bellinger fits the bill in many ways similar to Tucker, especially considering outfielders Daulton Varsho and George Springer are free agents after 2026. Is Bellinger a player the Blue Jays front office could replace with ownership, though? Especially considering the cost of the Competitive Balance Tax, given that any major deals would also carry 90% more tax?
The middle of this market doesn’t make much sense for the Blue Jays unless there is incredible value to be had. The addition of an outfield will take reps away from Ernie Clement or Addison Barger, so that addition will need to provide something impressive. Any external addition would need to provide something more than what Nathan Lukes can provide, for example. This list needs to step up, not just the big players. They’ve had enough of those already running in Game 7 of the World Series.
Now, they will try again. They’ll do without Bichette, who represented the future in Toronto for a long time and made good on all that hope, but that’s gone now.
