With Bo Bichette back on the roster as the Blue Jays challenge the Dodgers in the World Series, it didn’t take long for him to be asked about his impending free agency. As noted by Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, Bichette generally dismissed the question as something he doesn’t have the time to think about amid a World Series run, though he did acknowledge that his “goal” is to remain with the Blue Jays for the rest of his career.
That’s not exactly new information, as Bichette has long indicated a desire to spend his whole career in a Blue Jays uniform. Bichette has previously spoken of his desire to only play for one team throughout his whole career, and the ability to do so alongside longtime teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after Guerrero landed his own extension earlier this year surely makes the idea of sticking around in Toronto all the more appealing. With that said, there had been no extension talks between Bichette and club brass as recently as April.
Perhaps some discussions have taken place in the intervening months, of course, but with free agency just days away it seems all but certain that Bichette will hit the open market without signing an extension. That doesn’t mean he can’t be re-signed, of course, but the Blue Jays won’t be the only suitor for his services once he’s available to all 30 clubs and it’s unclear if Toronto is willing to add another major contract to the books after signing Guerrero to an extension worth half a billion dollars.
More from MLB’s East divisions…
- The Rays may now be operating under new ownership, but they’re still facing plenty of stadium uncertainty in the wake of the club’s recent failed stadium deal and the damage done to Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton last year. While it would be impossible to expect a meaningful update on a long-term stadium solution just one month into Patrick Zalupski’s tenure as control person, commissioner Rob Manfred did tell reporters (as relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) prior to Game 2 of the World Series yesterday that the league is “hopeful” that the Trop will be ready for Tampa’s opening homestand, scheduled to begin on April 6. While Manfred seemingly left the door open to the possibility that the stadium won’t be ready for those games, he said that “it certainly is going to be ready very early in the year.” That’s good news for the Rays, seeing as they were forced to play their home games in a minor league ballpark this year as a result of the damage to the Trop.
- Turning towards the National League, Will Sammon of The Athletic writes that Mets youngster Christian Scott is nearing the end of his rehab program as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery. Scott, 26, made his big league debut last year with a 4.56 ERA in nine starts but hasn’t pitched in an official game at any level since. He entered 2024 as a fringe top-100 prospect, however, and Sammon suggests that the right-hander could be another young arm in the mix for a rotation work with the Mets next year alongside players like Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat. With that said, a crowded group of rotation options that is likely to get at least one major addition this winter might make it hard for the righty to find consistent starts without a rash of injuries creating an opportunity.
Can somebody explain to me how Dante Bichette only had 5.7 career WAR according to baseball reference? Was his play in the outfield that bad? I realize he played in Colorado during the steroid era, but my goodness. Was not expecting it to be that low.
If you’re on BR already you can scroll down and see: BR WAR graded his defense incredibly poorly, and his offense generally was only a bit above average.
google AI confirms the analysis
Dante Bichette was a notorious liability in the field, with consistently poor defensive metrics throughout his career, most notably in his worst season, 1999, when he had the worst fielding total zone rating in MLB and made 13 errors. His immobility, attributed to knee problems, limited his range and ability to get to balls, negatively impacting his overall value despite his excellent hitting.
Do your own analysis; idc what the language model spits out,
Don’t use Google AI, what is wrong with you?
Why not? You a chatgpt man?
And he’s ugly.
Yeah, it was his defense that was the issue. He was truly terrible in the field.
That said, I was also amazed that his WAR was that low.
I think there’s a YouTube video specifically on Bichette and how bad his fielding was.
Bichette’s defense was at best horrendous, and you could go back to his days with the Angels and Brewers for that. Offensively he was very much a product of Coors Field which is probably being discounted against him in BR WAR grades
As mentioned, incredibly poor defense and it didn’t help that he had knee problems. When ballpark adjusted, he was only 7% (107 OPS+) or 4% (104 wRC+ per Fangraphs) better than the average major league bat at the time for his career.
‘Tampa’ does not currently have an opening day..
(Unless you are referring to the Lightning – NHL or the Yankees (Tampa Tarpons single A).
The Tampa Bay Rays do, in Saint Petersburg. At least for now anyway..
The ‘Tampa’ experience was less than satisfactory. IMO
I hated it. The trop will never look so good.
The thing about Bichette is he’s had a lingering leg injury since August/September and hasn’t been on the field to show himself healthy at all going into this free agency. His best bet might be taking the qualifying offer and doing a one year deal with Toronto, show himself healthy and hit the market again next season.
Working in his favor is him showing an openness to play 2B instead of SS. If he hits free agency as a 2B instead next year, and shows possibly plus defense, he could definitely aim for the Altuve type deal 5/125
I just don’t know a team will commit a big multi year deal to him at a position he’s below par at defensively and not shown himself to be healthy. Reminds me of Ha-Seong Kim a year ago in some ways
None of this makes sense. His injury requires nothing but rest and rehab, not surgery.
There is no way that his value plummets to a QO because of a non long term injury. He’s one of the better impeding free agents, if he is willing to move positions as part of the negotiation, he will easily get a 6-7 year deal.
Nothing degenerative nor something he can’t fully heal from. It’s a mild Grade 1 sprain of his left posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) from a homeplate collision.
@CenterWing So (it seems) that you’ve arbitrarily decided that an injury -any injury – automatically makes any player a question mark going forward. Without any regard to what that injury is, what the medical people say, his position, age, athleticism, or talent level.
This is not a serious, long-term injury. He’s in his prime, plays a premium defensive position, has [seemingly] demonstrated a willingness to change positions if necessary.
Even if Bichette can’t, for some reason (injury or otherwise) land the 6+ year, 10-figure contract, someone somewhere is going to offer him far better than a 1-year, $22 million deal.
Re Christian Scott et al sounds like the Orioles’ Baby Birds Chuck Estrada, Milt Pappas, Steve Barber. and Jack Fisher. None of them had big careers but they sometimes had big moments. Is this a Mets group with promising arms that don’t work out again? Matz, Wheeler, deGrom, and Harvey only had one pitching rotation together.
Fisher kiddingly takes credit for the Mets 1969 World Series success because had they not traded him for Tommie Agee, they wound not have won 🙂 Was a good pitcher for the Mets in the pre-Hodges period. Being a good journeyman pitcher for a bad team has to wear you down.
We’ve seen this dance with the Mets before when it comes to a “big three” of rotation prospects. The originals was Jason Isringhausen, Paul Wilson, and Bill Pulsipher. Isringhausen had a great career as a Closer, Wilson was a journeyman who had some success in Cincinnati and Tampa Bay. Pulsipher bounced around a bit but never had any real time in MLB
Can’t see the Jays doing a long term deal with Bichette. Gimenez is signed through 2029 and probably isn’t tradable without eating salary. Their best position player prospects are shortstops and while they are a couple of years away. you wouldn’t want a big Bichette contract to block them and Ernie Clement is a fine fill in until then. Santander, when healthy should be at DH. Bichette is only 27, he had a fine season, his fourth with better than 3,4 WAR. Someone is going to give him a long term deal to play middle infield. I just don’t think it will be the Jays.
Their SS prospects aren’t close to MLB ready though. I agree that they probably don’t spend the money on him. I think their best defensive alignment has Gimenez at SS anyway. They will need to bring in an infielder if Bichette is gone though.