Blue Jays Losing Bo Bichette Comes With a Nice Silver Lining
Even though the Mets scooped up Bo Bichette, the Blue Jays still have a very intimidating lineup that will do damage in 2026. It seems they've already got an offensive and defensive replacement for him on hand.
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For the first time in his MLB career, Bo Bichette will be wearing the jersey of a team other than that of the Toronto Blue Jays. On Friday, the New York Mets inked Bichette to a wild three-year, $126 million contract that makes him one of the highest-paid players in baseball for the next few years.
The Blue Jays may now be without their homegrown shortstop for the first time since 2019, and it’s a bittersweet goodbye considering his heroic home run in Game 7 of the World Series last season was his last in Toronto. Bichette is signing his first major long-term contract at the MLB level and the Jays are still one of the best teams in all of baseball, so both sides seem to have some silver lining out of this situation.
It doesn’t feel great for the Jays to be missing out on one of their longest-tenured players, especially when they were already able to extend fellow franchise superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 15-year, $500 million deal early last season. But Toronto didn’t rely on Bichette as much as they did other players over the last few seasons; in fact, most of their run down the stretch and in the postseason last year was done without Bichette.
Playoff Success Sans Bichette
The Blue Jays pushed the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers to a do-or-die Game 7 in 2025 and did so largely without Bichette’s strong bat in their lineup. He suffered a left knee injury when sliding into home plate during a September game against the New York Yankees, and missed the final 20 games of the Jays’ season to a lengthy IL stint.
This stint didn’t end in the regular season, as he wasn’t able to play in the Jays’ ALDS or ALCS matchups against the Yankees or Mariners. In these games combined, Toronto went 7-4 in the playoffs and went 12-8 in the regular season (19-12 overall). Over this span, Bichette’s spot in the lineup was compensated largely by super-utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa (0.7 fWAR, .631 OPS) and the team was still able to hold their own against tough competition down the stretch.
Bichette returned for the World Series and slashed a strong .348/.444/.478 with 6 RBI in the series (t-1st on TOR) and a tie-breaking home run in the third inning of the series-deciding Game 7, so he played a very important role in Toronto’s performance in the series, but at the same time they performed very well without him in the lineup.
They slashed .271/.345/.475 as a team in the ALCS and an incredible .338/.373/.601 in the ALDS with Andrés Giménez filling in at shortstop for Bichette and Kiner-Falefa moving to Giménez’s normal starting spot at second base. Kiner-Falefa only hit .162 in the playoffs including a 1-for-16 showing in the World Series, and their signing of Kazuma Okamoto in free agency this offseason really brings Toronto a lot more solace in their loss of Bichette.
Signing Okamoto Softens the Blow
Okamoto was signed to a four-year, $60 million deal just a matter of weeks ago and will likely serve as the Jays’ starting third baseman, allowing Giménez to continue as their starting shortstop with Ernie Clement playing at second base. Whereas Bichette’s replacement last season was largely up in the air, the Blue Jays have already replaced his spot in their lineup with a perennial 30-home run bat from Japan that will represent yet another threat to an already-intimidating roster.
His presence at the hot corner as a bona fide international star will serve as a strong replacement for Bichette’s services, and over his last five seasons he’s averaged a .275 batting average, 30 home runs, 84 RBI, 29 doubles, and an .898 OPS. Okamoto hasn’t yet been announced as a member of Samurai Japan for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, but he played an important role for them in the 2023 tournament.
Okamoto slashed .333/.556/.722 with two home runs, seven RBI, and twice as many walks as strikeouts (8-4 K/BB). He also had one of the most important hits of the tournament, smacking a solo home run in the championship game against the United States where Samurai Japan would take home their third WBC title. He’s a proven performer in important situations and his regular season success over his entire career speaks for itself.
If he can have a strong performance for the Blue Jays in 2026 and beyond, losing out on Bichette will be a lot easier to handle. The signing of Okamoto to a four-year deal was, on its own, a very impressive and telling sign of the Jays’ willingness to invest in hitters, but it carries even more significance now that he will be the main addition on their infield for the foreseeable future.
Passing of the Torch in Toronto
The one aspect of Bo Bichette’s game that isn’t world class is his defense, and the Blue Jays have found a way to improve from it in a drastic way. Andrés Giménez is one of the slickest fielders in baseball and has three Gold Glove award and one Platinum Glove award under his belt. He has reached 11+ Outs Above Average (OAA) in four consecutive season and ranked in the top 6% of players league-wide in Defensive Run Value (DRV) in three of the last four seasons (85th percentile in 2025).
By making this switch, Toronto goes from having one of the worst defensive shortstops in the league in Bichette, who posted a -12 DRS and 1st percentile OAA in 2025, to one of the best in Giménez, who leads all infielders (excluding catchers) in Fielding Run Value (FRV) since 2022 with a mark of +49.
Also, Giménez made himself known in the 2025 postseason by slugging home runs in back-to-back games of the ALCS to help Toronto tie the series at 2-2 against the Mariners. He posted an .842 OPS and drove in six runs against Seattle, making him one of the most valuable Blue Jays in the matchup. While his bat wasn’t always consistent throughout the regular season, he came through in a big way to help the Blue Jays when they needed it the most.
Closing Thoughts
It obviously sucks for the Toronto Blue Jays to have to move on without having Bichette under contract and in their uniforms, and certainly it sucks for Guerrero to have to play without one of his longest-tenured teammates and friends, but the future (and present) is still very bright in Toronto.
Names like Kazuma Okamoto, Andrés Giménez, and Ernie Clement will carry the Jays’ infield offensively and defensively over the upcoming season and the ensuing years to replace Bichette’s production in Toronto. Bichette signed with the New York Mets on a deal that guarantees him $42 million per season through 2028, setting the record for average annual value (AAV) for an infielder in MLB history.
Toronto may have been outbid (likely by a lot) in the Bichette sweepstakes, but they’re not losing nearly as much as some might think on their infield. Bichette brings great consistency and an intimidating presence to any lineup, but the Jays still have one of the most fearsome infield combinations in all of MLB, so things are still looking up in Toronto.
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Ethan has been writing for Just Baseball since 2024 and is fascinated by how sabermetric statistics can assist our understanding of outcomes and probability in baseball.…