There will be fans idling around Blue Jays Way, felt-tip markers and paraphernalia in hand, in case he opts for a walk to the ballpark on a warm, partly cloudy afternoon. There will be a dense cluster of media waiting in semi-circle formation around a solitary spot on the dugout bench as he emerges from the visitor’s clubhouse a few hours prior to first pitch.
There will be the typical line of questioning. How does it feel? Is it weird to be on the other side? What memories are coming back? How do you expect the crowd to react? Have you stayed in touch with the guys?
There will be pre-game hugs and batting-practice banter. There will be No. 11 jerseys dotted throughout the stands. There will be a video tribute. There will be a standing ovation.
There will be Bo Bichette, stepping into the batter’s box in a New York Mets jersey, acknowledging the crowd, doing everything in his power not to betray a shred of emotion, in a moment everyone with even a tangential interest in the Toronto Blue Jays has been awaiting since January.
“Oh, I’m sure he’ll hate it,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “I think he’ll tip his helmet. But I’m sure you won’t get a smile. You may get a smile in the dugout. But I’m sure he’ll be locked in to hit.”
Could you imagine Bichette, returning to the Rogers Centre Monday for the first time since departing the only organization he’s ever known, responding to the moment any other way? An intense and exacting presence who gravitated to likeminded teammates such as Marcus Semien and Matt Chapman, Bichette didn’t become so popular in Toronto for how much of his personality he put on display. He did it with what really matters — his play.
“Bo, he expects a lot out of himself. Unless he’s hitting, like, .350, he’s not happy,” said Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. “He’s not a guy that’s out there necessarily looking like he’s having a lot of fun. He takes the game very seriously and takes every at bat very seriously. That’s Bo.”
Drafted by the Blue Jays in 2016, Bichette spent a decade in Toronto’s organization, wearing Blue Jays colours from rookie ball to the seventh game of the World Series and everywhere in between. He went to two all-star games, appeared on MVP ballots and twice led the league in hits. It isn’t hyperbolic to call him the second-most productive shortstop the franchise has ever had after Tony Fernandez.
“Just the impact he’s had on our organization, our wins, our ability to compete, has all been so positive,” said Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins. “Look forward to seeing him here.
Schneider was one of Bichette’s first managers at high-A Dunedin in 2017. They followed each other up the minor-league ladder, both reaching the majors two years later.
He watched the homeschooled son of a four-time all-star slugger — Bichette was practically raised to be big-leaguer — navigate his way through the demanding rigours of professional baseball at an age when many are trying to navigate their way through a hangover to an intro sociology lecture, progressively becoming one of the most recognizable, scrutinized, and endlessly discussed faces of a franchise.
“I think it’ll be a little bit different because he’s been a big part of our team for a long time and a focal point of it for a long time,” Schneider says. “A little bit different from Tim Mayza or Joey Loperfido coming back just because of what he’s done for this team.”
And, no doubt, for how he exited it. The Blue Jays discussed potential extension frameworks with Bichette’s camp over the years, as they did with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s prior to signing him to one of the largest contracts in the sports history. But beyond agreeing to terms covering Bichette’s three arbitration years, the sides never aligned on value for seasons beyond, a task made trickier by the oscillating nature of his final years in Toronto.
He salvaged a bizarrely unproductive 2022 with a nuclear September — Bichette OPS’ed 1.106 with 19 extra-base hits over 32 games that month — before returning for an all-star 2023. But he struggled through a miserable, injury-plagued 2024, rebounding in 2025 with a strong walk year that was nevertheless marred by a late-season knee injury that held him out for most of the post-season until the World Series.
The final, enduring image for most fans of Bichette in a Blue Jays uniform is undoubtedly his first-pitch homer off Shohei Ohtani in Game 7 of that unbelievable series, followed by a slow, stoic, laboured jog around the bases.
“He was a great player for us here. You think about last year, just how much he had to do to get back to be able to play in the World Series,” Gausman said. “His time here was incredible. Led the league in hits multiple times. What a great ambassador for the organization. I hope that the fans give him the warm welcome that he should get.”
Bichette and the Blue Jays were connected throughout his free agency, but the organization made it clear early in the off-season that it would be going forward with Andrés Giménez as its primary shortstop and that a return would necessitate a position change. In January, the club closed one alternative pathway, signing Kazuma Okamoto to play third base.
Not long after, less than a day after finishing second in the Kyle Tucker sweepstakes, the Mets swooped into Bichette’s market with an extraordinarily aggressive offer, presenting a three-year, $126-million deal that affords the ability to re-enter free agency following each of the first two seasons while collecting a $5-million bonus.
Meanwhile, for all intents and purposes, the plate appearances Bichette vacated in Toronto have been inherited by Okamoto. And in the vacuum of a half-season’s results, it’s hard to characterize that as anything but favourable for the Blue Jays.
Of course, they’re different hitters and different complements to a broader offensive puzzle. Bichette brings more hit; Okamoto, more pop. Okamoto walks more; Bichette strikes out less. Bichette uses the whole field; Okamoto’s trying to pull everything. And that’s to say nothing of the differences between them in plate appearance quality, baserunning and defensive ability.
You can’t merely presume their results would be the same if the two flipped places. The contexts around them would be entirely different. In that theoretical universe, it could be Bichette leading the Blue Jays in homers, OPS and fWAR, as Okamoto is. And the currently middling Blue Jays could be doing better, worse, or right around the same.
Yet here in reality, Bichette began his 2026 in a prolonged funk, hitting .213/.271/.299 with only 11 extra-base hits through his first 61 games, good for a 63 wRC+ that ranked bottom-10 among qualified hitters at that point. But he started to heat up earlier this month, and over his 23 games since he’s OPS’ed .993, more than doubling his season-long extra-base hit total with 13.
Bichette’s Mets, meanwhile, are in dire straits. A 12-game losing streak in April set the tone for a disastrous season that led to manager Carlos Mendoza’s firing on Friday. Operating with one of baseball’s largest payrolls, New York has fielded a bottom-five offence by wRC+ behind a starting staff that’s pitched to MLB’s fourth-highest ERA. Barring an otherworldly second-half run of play, the Mets are well on their way to falling short of projections and missing the post-season for a second straight year.
There are, for both teams and all involved, bigger things to worry about. Bichette will be the central protagonist Monday, fielding all those mundane questions, suffering through his tribute video, stepping to the plate, acknowledging the crowd and probably not cracking a smile. But then there will be a game. A result. A small step forward or back for either underperforming side. And the ceaseless grind of baseball will go on.
“I think he’ll probably tip his cap. I don’t think he’ll try to ignore it,” Gausman says. “We’ll see how emotional it makes him. Maybe it doesn’t at all, maybe it does. You never really know until it happens.”