This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Bo Bichette doesn’t tend to overcomplicate things.
He doesn’t wax poetic about the grand stages he looks so comfortable on. He doesn’t deliver monologues about swing mechanics or do mental gymnastics to break down his own game. Bo knows simplicity.
Bichette is off to a remarkable start in 2023, batting .368 with four home runs and a .997 OPS. He went 5-for-5 in Friday’s win over the Rays, which snapped their 13-0 streak and stopped them one win short of making history with the longest winning streak to open a season in the modern era.
In doing so, Bichette became the fastest player in Blue Jays history to reach 500 hits, doing it in just 407 games. After the win, Bichette, in his classic fashion, didn’t give that milestone much thought.
“I’m just trying to get a good pitch to hit and hit it hard,” Bichette said.
It seems to be working.
“I feel good,” Bichette said. “I just feel like I’m making good adjustments and turning the page quickly to the next pitch, whether it’s positive or negative. I’d just like to try to continue that."
Bichette will never be the player who delivers the spicy soundbite, and that’s just fine. His job is to win ballgames, and he’s been doing just that. While there have been some defensive wobbles early at shortstop, he’s re-entering the territory where that’s easier to be patient with. His bat is just that good, and it looks like Bichette has carried his exceptional September from 2022 right into ’23.
“He can cover most of the zone, if not a little bit more,” manager John Schneider said. “We’re watching him evolve into [focusing on] what he’s going to get instead of what he wants to get. It’s been a turning point for him, just being a little more selective. He’s been talented since we signed him. I saw him hit .400 in the Minor Leagues in A-ball.”
There aren’t many pitches that Bichette can’t hit. Back when Charlie Montoyo was Bichette’s manager, he’d always watch for Bichette to hit foul balls to the opposite field. That was the sign, Montoyo believed, that Bichette was seeing the ball well and rounding back into form. Sure enough, a pitch or two later, Bichette tended to scorch a line drive for a double.
Factor in the power and speed Bichette owns -- both good enough to take a run at just the third 30-30 season in Blue Jays history -- and he’s back to show that he can be one of the most exciting young shortstops in the game.
Schneider isn’t surprised, though, that Bichette wasn’t exactly doing cartwheels over reaching the 500-hit plateau. He’s got bigger plans and bigger goals. Besides, Schneider has seen this since Bichette was a teenager.
“Every at-bat is the same. Every at-bat, he’s trying to beat you,” Schneider said. “He’s happy to do it 500 times really fast. That’s him."