Is There a Path Back to the Blue Jays For Bo Bichette?

This past offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays made headlines as one of the biggest winners in free agency, enticing star players like Dylan Cease and Kazuma Okamoto to come north of the border. However, they also saw some of their best performers in 2025 sign with different organizations in the same offseason. Players like Chris Bassitt, Seranthony Dominguez, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa left town, but they all pale in comparison to Toronto’s loss of Bo Bichette.

Bichette was drafted by the Blue Jays in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft and was an integral part of the team’s core for several seasons, but he decided to pursue free agency where he inked a lucrative deal with the New York Mets. His new legacy in New York is just beginning, and his fortunes have been very different than the successful tenure he enjoyed in Toronto.

Bichette has two opt-outs in his three-year deal with the Mets after the 2026 and 2027 seasons and the lack of success he’s found with the Mets this season could be indicative that he’ll lean towards exercising one of them so he can potentially return to Toronto or test the free agent market.

Bichette’s Legacy in Toronto

Bichette is undoubtedly one of the best hitters in Blue Jays history and will always be remembered for his postseason heroics and many accomplishments for the Jays. In 748 games for the Blue Jays, Bichette slashed .294/.337/.469 with 111 home runs, 437 RBI, 61 stolen bases, and 20.0 fWAR.

In 2025, he performed incredibly in his final regular season in Toronto by setting career-highs in batting average (.311), doubles (44), and wRC+ (134) while receiving American League MVP votes for the fourth time in his career. He fought through injury issues at the end of the Jays’ season to make a comeback for the 2025 World Series, and he proved he was one of the most clutch players of the postseason.

In seven World Series games last year, Bichette tallied eight hits, a .348/.444/.478 slashline, and a go-ahead three-run home run in Game 7 off of Shohei Ohtani that looked to give the Jays their third WS title. This didn’t end up coming to fruition, however, but it stands as Bichette’s final gift to Blue Jays fans and capped off his legacy in Toronto with what could’ve been one of the most impactful hits in franchise history.

This is all to say that Bichette was an incredible player for the Blue Jays and his production at the plate will be sorely missed. He elected free agency following the 2025 season as he and the Jays weren’t able to come to terms on a contract agreement and so ended his tenure in Toronto.

Struggles in Queens

Bichette hasn’t exactly been the most successful player this year with the Mets, and his team isn’t performing remotely to the level that they’d like to be. Through their first 90 games, the Mets are 37-53 and sit 16 games under .500. They signed Bichette to a three-year, $126 million contract this past offseason and so far their whole team has underperformed drastically. There are only two teams with less wins than the Mets this season, and that’s indicative of a new level of struggling.

On the 2026 season, Bichette is slashing .250/.296/.379 with 10 home runs, 50 RBI, one stolen base, and 14 doubles. He is currently on pace to finish with the worst full-season wRC+ (89) and fWAR (2.0) of his big-league career thus far. In every season that Bo has played in at least 90 games, he’s notched a batting average of at least .290 and a wRC+ over 120, and he looks to be on pace to break that streak in 2026.

From 2025 to 2026, Bichette’s xBA has dropped from .295 to .283, his xSLG has dropped from .473 to .426, and his wOBA dropped the 15th-most in baseball over this span from .361 to .302. His strikeout rate has increased nearly 4% from last year and his batting average on fastballs has dipped over 60 points (.246 from .307). The year-to-year changes are hard to ignore, and they tell the story of Bichette simply underperforming for the Mets this year.

The Mets made a splash in free agency by signing Bichette, but he’s tied for just the seventh-best fWAR on the Mets and he has the team’s ninth-best wRC+ (min. 90 PA). Simply put, things just don’t seem to be working the best between the Mets and Bichette this season, so there could be a decent likelihood that he’ll consider making use of one of his opt-outs.

Is There a Reunion in Store?

It’s very interesting to consider both possibilities here, those being either Bichette choosing to opt-out and test free agency or remaining in his Mets contract. Of course, there remains the possibility that the Mets trade him this summer, but they’d need to be prepared to eat a ton of the money they still owe him.

On one hand, Bichette’s massive contract means it’d be hard to choose against $84 million over the next two seasons and he’s very unlikely to find another offer in free agency that comes close to that value over such a short timespan.

However, he could decide that the vibes in New York just aren’t cutting it and a change of scenery is needed. At the end of the day, Bo signed with the Mets because of their high chance at both making the playoffs and doing damage in them. With the Mets holding one of the worst records in MLB over halfway through the 2026 season, he has the remainder of the season to decide whether to jump ship or not.

If he opts to test free agency, the Blue Jays would welcome him home with open arms, as they could use a productive bat like his in their lineup. Toronto currently has one of the most underperforming overall lineups in baseball, with a 92 team wRC+ and just a .303 wOBA (27th in MLB). Perhaps the best version of Bo can only be reached when he’s back in Toronto? The Blue Jays would certainly argue that.

The likelihood of this happening isn’t very high, as the two sides would still have to come to an agreement on a contract if Bichette went the full distance to test free agency. One has to think that if an extension was in the cards when he was still a Blue Jay, they had plenty of time to try to see eye-to-eye. Especially if Bichette’s camp will use the $42 million per season he got from the Mets as a benchmark of sorts, you can all but rule out a long-term deal anywhere, let alone Toronto.

The Jays might’ve had a better shot at making this work if they didn’t sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, $500 million contract paying him an average of just over $35 million per season. It’d be hard to fit Bo’s contract on their payroll unless he’s willing to take a big pay cut.

Closing Thoughts

Bo Bichette’s status with the Mets wasn’t under too much scrutiny heading into the 2026 season, but now that both he and the Mets have been heavily underperforming, it can be inferred that the two sides aren’t great matches for one other.

If Bichette does try to test his luck in free agency, he might seek a reunion with the Blue Jays but there’s no guarantee that such a deal could work out. As amazing as it would be to see him return to the franchise where he poured so much time and effort into, Bichette might simply be at a point in his career where change was necessary.

One can’t deny that the money he’s received from the Mets is quite impressive and influential, but it just might take him some time to adjust to his new home environment. It’s a matter of how the remainder of the 2026 season plays out for Bichette and the Mets to decide what the future holds, and a reunion with the Blue Jays might not be the most farfetched idea.