{"id":397165,"date":"2026-01-08T23:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397165\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:53:08","slug":"philadelphia-phillies-emerging-as-top-candidate-to-land-bo-bichette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397165\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Phillies emerging as top candidate to land Bo Bichette"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> have scheduled a meeting with former Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> shortstop Bo Bichette<\/a>, according to multiple reports. <\/p>\n

As Ken Rosenthal and Matt Gelb of The Athletic report, Bichette is expected to meet with the team on a video call<\/a> \u201cin the coming days.\u201d If the two sides were to come to an agreement, it would jump-start a free agency period that has been dormant for weeks.<\/p>\n

If the Phillies were to sign Bichette, it would likely result in the team moving on from long-time roster mainstays in catcher J.T. Realmuto<\/a> and third baseman Alec Bohm<\/a>, Rosenthal and Gelb report.<\/p>\n

Bichette is one of the top free agent hitters<\/a> still available, along with outfielders Kyle Tucker<\/a> and Cody Bellinger<\/a> and third baseman Alex Bregman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays were considered one of the favourites to retain Bichette entering the off-season, after the 27-year-old repeatedly stated throughout the season that his intention was to stay with the team and seek a title in the long run alongside superstar first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a>, who signed a 14-year contract extension in April.<\/p>\n

Bichette has earned MVP votes in four of the past five seasons, and hit .311 with 18 home runs in 2025. He missed the final month of the season with a knee injury, and was able to return for the World Series – where he hit one of the biggest home runs in franchise history off of Shohei Ohtani<\/a> in Game 7 to give the Blue Jays an early 3-0 lead in a game they would go on to lose 5-4 in 11 innings.<\/p>\n

However, after the Blue Jays signed infielder Kazuma Okamoto to a four-year contract earlier this month, Toronto may not have anywhere to play Bichette<\/a>, and the team might be more likely to pivot to another hitter.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after the Okamoto signing was made official, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins didn\u2019t tip his hand on any potential moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an opportunity for us to think about improving the organization, we\u2019re going to always lean into creative ways to do so,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n

That would leave the door open to sign Bichette in Toronto, even if there isn\u2019t an easy spot to put him on the field. The Blue Jays, as currently constructed, have some combination of Okamoto slotted in at third, Andres Gimenez<\/a> at shortstop, Ernie Clement<\/a> at second base and Guerrero at first, with Addison Barger<\/a> and Davis Schneider<\/a> both options for extra infield work. Adding Bichette to that mix would require some creative thinking.<\/p>\n

Other teams reportedly in the hunt to sign Bichette include the Chicago Cubs<\/a> and Boston Red Sox<\/a> – who have both shown interested in adding an infield bat, whether it be Bichette or Bregman – and the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> and New York Yankees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In seven MLB seasons, Bichette, a two-time All-Star, has hit .294 with 111 home runs and 437 RBI over 748 games played. Bichette has led the American League in hits twice in his career, and was on pace to lead the majors this season before missing time with the knee injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Phillies have scheduled a meeting with former Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, according to multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[712,49,48,462,97871,82,75156],"class_list":{"0":"post-397165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-philadelphia-phillies-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-246","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397165","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=397165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}