The Toronto Blue Jays are still caught somewhere in the middle.
Entering play this weekend, the Blue Jays are tied for the final playoff spot in the American League. But they’ve shown all season that they’re one good or bad series away from heading right back to the other side of .500.
Last season, Toronto sold their expiring veterans at the trade deadline. They’d hate to have to do so again, but they have one name that would turn a lot of heads if he were available: shortstop Bo Bichette.
Bichette, the two-time All-Star, has been teammates with superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for nearly a full decade. Toronto breaking up the band would be a tough blow for the fan base, but fortunately, it doesn’t seem as though that’s in the cards.
On Thursday, ESPN’s Buster Olney reported on the Baseball Tonight podcast that he was hearing it was extremely unlikely the Blue Jays would consider moving Bichette ahead of the Jul. 31 deadline, regardless of their record.
“It’s the last year for (president) Mark Shapiro on his contract,” Olney said. “It’s the last year for Ross Atkins, their general manager. They spent $500 million on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to sign him to a long-term deal. They just did these renovations that went in place last year.
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“And so what I’ve heard is people with other teams basically saying, ‘Yeah, there’s no way they’ll do that.’ And on top of that, there’s no way they will wave the white flag as early as July, if they have, as one person said to me, even a one percent chance. They will ride this out.”
Bichette, 27, is having a bounce-back season on offense. He’s slashing .279/.324/.443 with eight home runs and 35 RBI so far while playing all 62 of the Blue Jays’ games.
Fans have gotten used to seeing number 11 batting leadoff and playing shortstop for the Blue Jays, and for at least four more months, it appears that’s exactly where Bichette is going to stay.
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