TORONTO -- Bo Bichette is not on the Blue Jays’ ALCS roster that was announced on Sunday, leaving a potential World Series as his last shot.
Bichette has been rehabbing from a left knee sprain that’s kept him out for over five weeks, and while there was some optimism growing in recent days as he started running again, it was clear that Bichette was experiencing discomfort Saturday when he tried to run the bases at Rogers Centre.
“We were headed towards a little bit of a gray area, you know?” manager John Schneider said. “You really want the guy on your team. Can you do it? Is it the right thing for him? Is it the right thing for how we’d be built otherwise around him? It really just came down to yesterday and how he felt. Not happy that he didn’t feel great, but he didn’t set himself back by any means.”
It looked like Bichette’s straight-line runs were more comfortable, but when he tried to run from first and round second base at something closer to full speed, he was clearly protecting that left knee and hobbled slightly before pulling up and shaking his head.
“I think it just showed him that he was aware of guarding it a little bit,” Schneider said. “He didn’t set himself back, but I think it was just a bit of saying, ‘OK, in that setting, if I’m really thinking about timing out my steps and what I’m doing, what would that be like with adrenaline in a game?’ That was kind of the deciding factor.”
Not only is Bichette one of the Blue Jays’ most important hitters, he’s also in the final year of his deal after spending nearly a decade with the organization, a 2016 second-rounder out of high school who has grown into an All-Star. He’s also one of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s closest friends, the two of them going back to the lower levels of the Minor Leagues together, where they topped prospect lists and dreamed of a run like this.
Now, if this is going to be Bichette’s last shot at a World Series in Toronto, the Blue Jays will need to get him there by beating the Mariners in the ALCS.
This will continue to be a major story in the coming days, because even if Bichette wouldn’t have been ready for Games 1 and 2 in Toronto, there was still an argument to be made for rostering him later in the series. Bichette likely would have taken the roster spot of Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who is expected to see limited playing time, so any shot at Bichette getting at-bats later in the series could have been worth the risk. Given how he looked running the bases Saturday, though, the World Series, which begins Oct. 24, is no sure thing, either.
Beyond the Bichette decision, the Blue Jays added Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, who weren’t on the ALDS roster. The two veteran starters will take the roster spots of Tommy Nance and Justin Bruihl as the Blue Jays gear up for a longer, best-of-seven series.
Scherzer has stayed more stretched out than Bassitt, recently throwing five innings and roughly 95 pitches in a simulated game in Toronto while Bassitt threw closer to three innings and 45 pitches. It’s likely that both will be available in a variety of roles as the early days of this series unfolds, but signs point to Scherzer being the likelier starter by the time Game 4 rolls around, behind Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Shane Bieber.
The rest of Toronto’s roster remains the same as it looked for the ALDS win over the Yankees.