{"id":119859,"date":"2025-09-04T17:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/119859\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:42:12","slug":"blue-jays-bo-bichette-gets-280-million-contract-update-from-mlb-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/119859\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette gets $280 million contract update from MLB insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortstops get paid.<\/p>\n

That’s the basic intel provided from ESPN’s Jeff Passan in a deep dive<\/a>\u00a0on this offseason’s upcoming free agency. And the best shortstop on the market, by a mile and a half, is Toronto Blue Jays star Bo Bichette.<\/p>\n

And so, Passan writes, Bichette will get paid.<\/p>\n

He brings up Xander Bogaerts’ $280 million contract with the San Diego Padres as a comparison point. Many have speculated Bichette is a $200 million player. But maybe he’s more.<\/p>\n

“Bichette is only 27 years old, not 28 until March, the youngest of all the free agents,” Passan writes. “He’s in his prime with years left to spare. He’s a consistent .300-plus hitter. He goes to all fields. He’s got power. His problem with lateral mobility could easily be solved by a move to third base — though it remains to be seen if he would want to change positions — and his bat would be good enough to play there, too. Whatever position Bichette mans, wherever he plays, he is a hitter in an era with far too few. Maybe he’s not a $300 million player. But if Turner is worth $300 million and Xander Bogaerts is worth $280 million and both were at least two years older than Bichette when they did sign, surely the market won’t leave him high and dry.”<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0The question of paying an aging DH in Kyle Schwarber<\/a><\/p>\n

Bichette had a miserable 2024 season for the Blue Jays. He batted just .225 while battling injuries. For a player who had felt like a franchise cornerstone, it raised lots of worry.<\/p>\n

But it doesn’t seem to be the real Bo.<\/p>\n

Bichette batted .311 in his short debut season, then .301 in the shortened 2020 season.<\/p>\n

By 2021, he was at full throttle, hitting .298 and leading the AL with 191 hits.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he was again the league leader in hits (189) with a .290 average.<\/p>\n

If not for a short injury stint in 2023, he would’ve led again, as he raised his average to .306 with 175 hits in 135 games.<\/p>\n

This is a special hitter, and he’s proving that again in 2025, where he’s one of only two players (Aaron Judge) hitting .300 with 90 RBI up to this point in the season.<\/p>\n

Someone will pay him. The only questions are how much, and which team?<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Paul Skenes reveals how he throws his Splinker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortstops get paid. That’s the basic intel provided from ESPN’s Jeff Passan in a deep dive\u00a0on this offseason’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-119859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}