TORONTO — Amid the pandemonium unleashed by his Game 7 smash off Shohei Ohtani, a three-run shot that appeared destined for a special place in Toronto Blue Jays lore, Bo Bichette ducked into the tunnel leading to the clubhouse. Eight weeks earlier, he’d suffered a posterior cruciate ligament sprain in his left knee that was more severe than publicly acknowledged, an attempt to return for the ALCS fell short and he recovered just enough to play in the World Series, going 8-for-23 with a homer, four walks and six RBIs, all while playing second base for the first time in the big leagues.
For the then-pending free agent, that swing meant everything.
“It was a difficult time for me leading up to that World Series … and then having to go out, not at full strength, just a lot going on for me at that time,” Bichette, his eyes dampening, said Monday during an emotional 10-minute session with media in his return to Rogers Centre. “But I knew what I was capable of and I knew that if I went out there, competed and gave what I had, that I could have an opportunity to do something special. And honestly, when I hit that home run, I had a moment by myself where I just was like, I couldn’t have drawn 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 for me.”
Only the late-game heartbreak that followed kept his home run, a 442-drive to centre at 110.1 m.p.h. off the bat, from being the iconic Joe Carter swing for a new generation. And, along with the ninth-inning single that helped set up a potential walk-off rally that went for naught, it turned out to be his final moment of greatness with the Blue Jays, which made his first visit since signing a $126-million, three-year contract that includes two opt-outs with the New York Mets such an emotional homecoming.
Bichette fought back tears when asked what he expected from the night, saying he didn’t know, pausing for 20 seconds as his eyes welled up, and then adding, “I gave it everything I had … I just hope that’s appreciated.” A crowd of 41,364 later showed that it was, with standing ovations after a pre-game tribute video and before his first at-bat, when home-plate umpire James Hoye cleaned the dish to create time for the feting.
All the feels throughout the day broke down Bichette’s trademark stoicism, demonstrating just how much the Blue Jays and the city meant to him. He rejected the notion of the series as an opportunity to show his former team how much they miss him, instead calling the visit “an opportunity for me to reflect on good times and just be grateful” for that part of his career.
Regrets over how things played out?
“At the end of the day, it just didn’t line up, for whatever reason. But no,” Bichette replied. “Tough to live in the past like that. It just didn’t line up.”
Why it didn’t line up can be explained as simply as other teams — like the Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies, who thought they had Bichette for $200 million over seven years before their NL East rivals swept in — valued him at a price the Blue Jays wouldn’t match.
But after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got his number at $500 million over 14 years, and the Blue Jays’ unsuccessful runs at Ohtani, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker in free agency the past three off-seasons, there’s an element of choice to the parting, too. That’s why it was notable during spring training when Schneider said that “Vladdy’s always been the guy in his whole time here.”
There’s no longer any debating that, although with neither Guerrero’s Blue Jays, who ended a six-game losing streak with a 2-1 win Monday, nor Bichette’s Mets, where they want or expect to be in the standings right now, it’s easy to wonder about the path not taken.
The mark Bichette left on the Blue Jays over seven seasons, on the other hand, is far more certain. He basically “was playing on one leg” in the World Series, said Schneider, and still delivered that remarkable home run in the third inning of Game 7, on a first-pitch slider from Ohtani after Guerrero had been intentionally walked.
“I can’t speak for him, I haven’t even asked him this, but I’m sure, ‘Oh, you’re going to walk this guy to get to me,’ was probably in his brain a little bit,” said Schneider. “I remember the swing, watching how far the ball went and I’ll always remember Vlad waiting for him for a little hug at home plate and you go, ‘Oh, (shoot), if this is ever going to be what it should be with those two guys in Game 7 of the World Series’ … you felt pretty good about it. I remember that. That was like a little bit less loud than George (Springer’s ALCS Game 7) homer against Seattle. Maybe the same. But I remember taking a little, like, snapshot in my head with him and Vlad at the plate.”
A lasting image of what nearly was and a lasting image of what more could have been, too.