We thought we knew Bo Bichette. He was the guy who was going to give us an OPS+ in the 120s. He’d get 20 some home runs. Batting average in the .300 area. He’d play every day. Maybe not quite the defense we’d like, but there wouldn’t be much for surprises.
There would be hot and cold stretches, but we knew the season would end in about the same spot.
But didn’t get the usual season from Bo. He started the season slow. On May 7th, his batting average was .189. I still figured he would end up where he always did. At the end of June, his batting line was .233/.286/.335. We weren’t getting the power we expected or the average. But still, he had half a season to get to where he always did.
But he didn’t have half the season. Bo went on the IL, with a calf strain, came back for a day, and then reinjured the calf. This time, he was out until the last couple of weeks of the season. Again, he got in one game, broke a finger in warm-ups the next day, and that was the season.
Bo was a guy who had always been very lucky with injuries and then had them all last season.
The finger injury was a freak thing. The calf injury, on the other hand, is a worry. These injuries can be chronic and can derail a career.
So, this season is pretty important for Bo.
The Jays have a decision to make on Bo. Do we trade him now? Do we hope he has his usual start to next season and trade him at the deadline? Do they try to extend him?
The last one seems not to be happening. It seems to have been decided that they can only sign one of Bo and Vlad. Vlad had a good season, and Bo didn’t, so they are trying (or I hope they are trying) to sign Vlad.
And, since the team doesn’t know if Bo will bounce back to being Bo, it would be a leap of faith to sign Bo now. I’m sure Bo wouldn’t want to sign coming off a down year. And who knows if Bo sees himself as a Blue Jay for the rest of his career.
I hate the idea of trading him now; it seems to be selling low to me. But then, if he starts the 2025 season the way he started last season and/or has the same injury issues, he’ll have little to no trade value at the deadline.
The Athletic has a post looking at what has happened to other players who had a bad season that was out of the norm. But it didn’t show a trend. They could have likely done a better job of looking for players who matched Bo’s age, position, and type of injury.
And it doesn’t matter. Every player and every injury is different. Leg injuries, like Bo’s, worry me. We’ve seen a few players (Donaldson, Lawrie, Wells) whose careers were affected by it. On the other hand, I’m sure there are easily as many players out there who had one season with the issue and were never bothered by it again. But then those are harder to remember.
Steamer figures Bo will play 143 games, hitting .278/.324/.441 with 20 home runs. Of course, Steamer doesn’t know that Bo cut his hair off. And since he never got that Head and Shoulders commercial, I figured we’d see, so I’m okay with it.