The Blue Jays introduced Thursday that shortstop Bo Bichette suffered a fractured center finger and has been positioned on the 15-day injured listing, ending his 2024 season. Bichette was scratched from yesterday’s lineup after struggling a hand harm throughout pregame fielding drills. Outfielder Jonatan Clase has been recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to take Bichette’s spot on the energetic roster.
The damaged finger caps off a nightmare season for Bichette — one which’s seen the two-time All-Star climate a pair of IL stints on account of calf strains which have severely hobbled him. Bichette solely simply returned from the injured listing Tuesday and performed in a single sport after a virtually two-month absence on account of that ailing calf. He’ll shut out the 12 months with a wildly uncharacteristic .225/.277/.322 batting line and 4 homers — a far cry from the .299/.340/.487 batting line he carried into the 2024 marketing campaign.
Bichette was the topic of commerce rumblings early this summer season, however Toronto GM Ross Atkins rapidly shut down any actual notion of promoting low on his star shortstop when he mentioned in mid-June that buying and selling Bichette (or teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) “[didn’t] make any sense” for the Jays. Whereas the Blue Jays in the end operated as deadline sellers, they solely moved gamers who’d have been up at no cost company on the finish of the present season.
All indications have been that Atkins & Co. need to retool the roster and take purpose at a return to contending subsequent season. Bichette, who just lately voiced a powerful need to stick with the Jays, will presumably be part of these efforts — though different groups across the league will doubtless not less than inquire about the potential of prying him unfastened from the one group he’s identified so far in his profession.
The 2025 season will likely be Bichette’s closing 12 months earlier than reaching free company for the primary time. The Jays signed him to a three-year, $33.6MM deal shopping for out all three of his arbitration seasons again in February of 2023. That contract, which didn’t delay his path to the open market, requires Bichette to earn $16.5MM subsequent season in what will likely be his age-27 marketing campaign.
Extra to come back.
