Bo Bichette

Bo Joseph Bichette

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 0", Weight 200 lb.
High School Lakewood High School
Debut July 29, 2019

Born March 5, 1998 in Orlando, FL USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Bo Bichette made his major league debut in 2019. He is the son of Dante Bichette and the brother of Dante Bichette Jr..

Bichette was taken by the Toronto Blue Jays in the second round of the 2016 amateur draft, their 3rd pick (after T.J. Zeuch and J.B. Woodman) and the 66th pick of the draft. He impressed for the GCL Blue Jays, hitting .427/.451/.732 with 21 runs scored and 36 RBI in 22 games, fielding .983 in 16 games at shortstop and 1.000 in 6 contests at second base. Baseball America named him the 4th-best prospect in the Gulf Coast League, behind Mickey Moniak, Matt Manning and Juan Soto, and Toronto's #8 prospect, between Zeuch and Jon Harris. He played alongside his brother for the Brazilian national team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers (their mother is a Brazilian native). Starting at short the first two games, he was 1 for 8 with 3 strikeouts and 2 runs (both against Pakistan. He was benched the third game in favor of Leonardo Reginatto, who moved over from third base. After Reginatto made a crucial two-run error, Bichette pinch-hit for Irait Chirino and stayed in at shortstop (Reginatto moving to third base and Dante Jr. from third to left field to replace Chirino). He was 1 for 3 with two more strikeouts and five runners left on base as Brazil lost, 4-3, to Great Britain to be eliminated.

Bo was named to the United States team for the 2017 Futures Game. He started that season with the Lansing Lugnuts of the Class A Midwest League where he hit .384 in 70 games, with 10 homers and 51 RBI. He and teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr., another second-generation player, were the two Blue Jays representatives at the Futures Game and both were promoted to the High A Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League to coincide with their appearance at the prospect showcase. He was again named to the United States team for the 2018 Futures Game, continuing his meteoric ascent through the Blue Jays chain. Bichette opened 2019 with the Buffalo Bisons as the youngest player in AAA [1]. Guerrero would have been younger, had he not started the year on the injured list, and the major league Blue Jays had a player even younger than the two young prospects in pitcher Elvis Luciano, who had just turned 19. Bo was hitting .250 with 5 extra-base hits in his first 14 games when he was sidelined by a broken hand, the result of being hit by a pitch thrown by Hector Santiago of the Syracuse Mets on April 22nd. He hit well after returning to the fold and, by mid-July, there were stories in the press saying that he did not understand why he was still in AAA when teammates Guerrero and Cavan Biggio had already joined the big club and he had nothing left to prove in the minors. One of the obstacles to his being called up was removed on July 28th when the Jays traded Eric Sogard to the Tampa Bay Rays, opening up a spot for an infielder.

Indeed, he made his major league debut the next day, July 29th, as the starting shortstop against the Kansas City Royals and did not have to wait long to collect his first hit, as he singled off Brad Keller on the second pitch he saw, finishing the day 1 for 4. He hit his first homer two days later, off Jakob Junis of the Royals, as part of a three-hit day in a 4-1 win. Bo collected 10 extra-base hits in his first 9 career games, the most by any player since at least 1908. He also set a team record by hitting safely in each of those 9 games, the longest hitting streak by a Blue Jays player to start his career. On August 7th, he doubled in his 8th straight game, breaking the team record of 7 set by Carlos Delgado in 2000. On August 8th, he played his first game in his home ballpark, the Rogers Centre, and extended his hitting streak to 11 games and his doubles streak to 9 games, a new major league record; his first hit was a homer off Domingo German of the New York Yankees. Both streaks ended when he was shut out the next day and after a couple more quiet days, he burst out again on August 12th with a four-hit game in a 19-4 rout of the Texas Rangers, giving him 26 hits in his first 15 games. His streak of getting on base safely reached 17 games before he was finally shut down on August 16th, shy of the record of 24 games set by Rocco Baldelli. On August 20th, he led off a game against Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a homer, and went deep again in the 6th for the first two-homer game of his career. Unfortunately, the Jays were beaten soundly, 16-3. He had a couple more rare hitting feats before the month ended: 15 doubles and 45 hits in his first 30 games. He finished his rookie campaign batting .311/.358/.571 in 46 games (212 plate appearances) with 29 extra base hits and a 2.1 bWAR.

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he hit .301 in 29 games, with 5 homers and 23 RBIs and an OPS+ of 128. He was having a truly outstanding season, hitting .361 on August 15th, when he had to miss a month with a right knee sprain. He had homered in four consecutive games just before the injury, but did not hit another one after his return, while batting .242. Still, the Blue Jays managed to make it into the postseason, but he was held hitless in 8 plate appearances by the Tampa Bay Rays as they Jays were swept in two games in the Wild Card Series. He started 2021 slowly before having the second two-homer game of his career on April 6th against the Texas Rangers. It came in the middle of an 11-game hitting streak that also included a five-RBI game on April 10th, and another two-homer game, this one against the New York Yankees on April 14th. His second homer in that game was a walk-off shot off Chad Green to lead off the bottom of the 9th. On April 20th, he tied his homer total from the previous season by hitting his 5th off Eduardo Rodriguez of the Boston Red Sox, over the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Incidentally, the ball landed near the building on Lansdowne Street that once house Gold's Gym, which happens to be where his father first met his mother, Mariana, back in 1991. While most of the attention that season was directed at Guerrero and double play mate Marcus Semien, he quietly had an outstanding year, being named to the All-Star team for the first time, hitting for both average and power, and also stealing bases without being caught. In late July, when off-season free agent signee George Springer was finally healthy enough to assume his customary lead-off spot, he was moved down from the second spot to batting clean-up, a move justified by his uncanny ability to make contact with two strikes and to drive in runs, in spite of the presence on the team of more typical sluggers like Guerrero, Teoscar Hernandez or Randal Grichuk. He finished the year at .298 in 159 games, with 121 runs scored, 30 doubles, 29 homers and 102 RBIs. His OPS+ was 121, he stole 25 bases in 26 attempts and led the American League with 191 hits. He finished 12th in the MVP vote. Really, the only blemish on his record were the 24 errors he committed at shortstop, most of them throwing errors.

He started the 2022 season slowly, as after 16 games he was hitting .217 with just 1 homer and 4 RBIs. On April 25th, however, he hit the first grand slam of his career, off Tyler Danish of the Boston Red Sox. The blast broke a 2-2 tie in the 8th inning as the Jays went on to win the game, 6-2. On September 5th, he had the first three-homer game of his career in the second game of a doubleheader sweep of the Baltimore Orioles; he had had another three-hit game in the opener, to give him 7 RBIs on the day. Teammate Guerrero had had a three-homer game earlier that season, and reporters noted how rare it was for a team to have two players 25 or younger achieve the feat in one season, as the Jays were only the fourth team in history to have that happen, the most recent having been the 1977 Montreal Expos with Gary Carter and Larry Parrish. He was named the AL Player of the Week then gave the Blue Jays another win on September 12th with an 8th-inning two-run homer for a 3-2 win in the opening game of a crucial five-game set at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. He finished the season at .290 with 43 doubles and 24 homers in 159 games, leading the game in hits for the second straight year with 189. His OPS+ was 127, but as had been the case in 2020, the Blue Jays were victim of a quick exit in the postseson, losing both games against the Seattle Mariners in the Wild Card Series. He went 2 for 8 with a double and a run scored in the two games.

On February 7, 2023, he signed a three-year contract extension with the Blue Jays, avoiding potential salary arbitration until he becomes eligible for free agency. On April 14th, he collected the 500th hit of his career as part of a five-hit game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Having reached the milestone in 407 games, he was the quickest in team history to do so, easily besting Vernon Wells and Shannon Stewart who had done so in 432 games. He was probably the Jays' best player over the first four months of the season as through the end of July, he was once again leading the American League in hits, with 144 in 106 games, as well as in multi-hit games and in batting average (.321). he had 17 homers and his OPS+ was at 134, resulting in a second trip to the All-Star Game. However, on July 31st, he left a game against the Baltimore Orioles with an apparent leg injury after rounding first base in the 3rd inning and stopping abruptly, allowing SS Jorge Mateo to tag him out. He was probably the player could least afford to lose as they were fighting for a postseason slot. The injury prompted the Jays to acquire SS Paul DeJong from the St. Louis Cardinals the next day, which coincided with the trading deadline. He returned to action on August 19th, at which point the Jays designated DeJong for assignment, since he had gone a putrid 3 for 44 in Bo's absence. In his first game back he went 1 for 5 in a 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. However, he played only 8 games until going down again, being out until September 8th this time. He had another two-hit game on his return, against the Kansas City Royals, including a double and 2 RBIs. He finished at .306 in 135 games, with 30 doubles, 20 homers, 69 runs and 73 RBIs. His OPS+ was 123, in line with his three previous seasons, and he finished with 175 hits - 4th in the American League and just 10 behind leader Marcus Semien; doubtless, had he not been injured, he would once again have been the league leader. In the postseason, he went 4 for 8, leading the Jays in hits and scoring their only run as they were swept in two games by the Minnesota Twins in the Wild Card Series.

He struggled for the first time since reaching the majors at the start of the 2024 season. He hit just .213 in 28 games March/April as the Blue Jays struggled to score runs, and while he picked it up a bit in May, improving to .280 with 3 homers and 14 RBIs, he was still behind his career norms. He then hit just .204 in his first 13 games in June before being sidelined by a calf injury which sent him to the injured list on June 18th, after he had sat out the two previous games. Isiah Kiner-Falefa slid over to start at shortstop in his absence, while the Jays called up their top position player prospect, Orelvis Martinez, to take his spot on the roster. Things then got weird when Martinez was suspended for PED use after just one game and Kiner-Falefa went on the injured list himself, so it was another rookie, Leo Jimenez, who was Bichette's main back-up when he had to exit a game with a return of the injury on July 10th. He did not play again until the All-Star break, but in the Blue Jays' first game after the break, on July 19th against the Detroit Tigers, he hit an apparent double down the first base line in the 6th inning, only to pull off lame after taking a few steps. He left the game and was headed to another spell on the IL. The fact that all three injuries he had endured that season appeared to be related was even more worrisome. He was out of action until September 17th and in his absence Ernie Clement and rookie Leo Jiménez shared the shortstop job. In his return, he went 2-for-5 in a 13-8 loss to the Texas Rangers. However, it turned out to be his final game of the season, as x-rays revealed that he had broken a finger while taking ground balls before the game, and he was immediately put back on the IL. He ended the year with the worst numbers of his career by a landslide: a .225 average in 81 games, with just 4 homers and 31 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 71.

His father named him after Bo Jackson.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2-time AL All-Star (2021 & 2023)
2-time AL Hits Leader (2021 & 2022)
20-Home Run Seasons: 3 (2021-2023)
100 RBI Seasons: 1 (2021)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (2021)

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Bo Bichette

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