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<\/p>\nMonday was Bichette\u2019s first game back in Toronto since the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. He said he hadn\u2019t anticipated getting emotional during his pre-game media availability.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI didn\u2019t expect that, to be honest, but this is also the first time I\u2019ve been out here, and the first time I\u2019ve really talked to any of you guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot of things that are being brought on me at one time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichette received a warm reception from the Rogers Centre crowd, receiving standing ovations after a tribute video played on the stadium\u2019s big screen and ahead of his first at-bat. Both times, Bichette acknowledged the applause, showing his appreciation by tipping his cap and waving to the crowd.<\/p>\n
His first at-bat was an out \u2014 flying out to centre-fielder Myles Straw, but moving baserunner Juan Soto to third base.<\/p>\n
Following the end of the 2025 season, Bichette became a free agent and signed a three-year, US$126-million deal with the Mets.<\/p>\n
Before joining the Mets, Bichette spent his entire MLB career in Toronto. The Blue Jays drafted the infielder in the second round in 2016, and he made his major-league debut in July of 2019. <\/p>\n
Over seven seasons with the Blue Jays, Bichette, a two-time All-Star, batted .294 with 111 home runs, 437 RBIs and an .806 OPS in 748 games.<\/p>\n
Bichette said it felt \u201cdifferent\u201d to be back in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to get out here and play some ball and see some guys,\u201d said Bichette, who viewed his time return as an opportunity to \u201creflect on good times, and just be grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the good times was last year\u2019s Blue Jays\u2019 run to the World Series. Bichette missed the majority of the post-season with a left knee injury, but made his return to the lineup during the World Series. <\/p>\n
In Game 7, he hit a three-run home run in the third inning off Dodgers starter Shohei Ohtani that gave Toronto an early lead before L.A. came back to win in extra innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hit that home run, I had a moment by myself, kind of down in the tunnel, where I just was like, I couldn\u2019t have drew it up better. Obviously, I hoped we would have won, but for me, just what I was going through up to that point, it was cool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As Bichette navigated free agency, he said he had a feeling his time in Toronto had come to an end before he signed with the Mets. But the third baseman said he doesn\u2019t have regrets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think at the end of the day, it just didn\u2019t line up for whatever reason,\u201d he said. \u201cBut no, I mean, (it\u2019s) tough to live in the past like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichette got off to a slow start for the Mets this season, but he has performed better recently. Entering Monday\u2019s game, he was batting .337 with five home runs and 18 RBIs with a .932 OPS through 25 games in June.<\/p>\n
Before the game, Bichette said he had yet to reunite with former teammate and close friend Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with whom he shared a field with throughout the minor leagues as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be good,\u201d he said, again becoming emotional, about what it would be like to see Guerrero.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went through it all together,\u201d Bichette said about his relationship with the Blue Jays first baseman. \u201cThe one goal we had together, we didn\u2019t accomplish it, but I\u2019ve seen him at his lowest, and he\u2019s seen me at mine, and vice versa at our highest.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn McGrath, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday was Bichette\u2019s first game back in Toronto since the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Blue Jays in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-770435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770435","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=770435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}