TORONTO -- Bo Bichette is back.
The Blue Jays have added Bichette to their roster for the World Series, which was announced Friday morning ahead of Game 1 at Rogers Centre. Seven weeks after injuring his left knee on a slide at home plate in New York, the Blue Jays’ star shortstop finally has his shot to help Toronto win its first World Series since 1993.
He started Game 1 at second base, too, a position he hasn’t played since 2019 in the Minor Leagues.
This has been a long, challenging rehab process for Bichette. Initially, the Blue Jays had been optimistic that his knee injury was just cuts and bruises, but tests soon showed a PCL sprain and his progress since then has been slow, the decision looming over both the ALDS and ALCS roster decisions against the Yankees and Mariners.
Prior to the Championship Series against the Mariners, Bichette tested his knee running the bases, but was still in clear discomfort. In recent days at Rogers Centre, Bichette has been running and it’s looked somewhat better, but we still haven’t seen the 27-year-old crank it up to full game speed. Just how healthy Bichette is still isn’t clear, but even 80% of Bichette is worth rostering as the Blue Jays need all the offensive firepower they can get to take down the mighty Dodgers.
In other moves, the Blue Jays have added first-baseman Ty France to their World Series roster, leaving off outfielder Joey Loperfido and reliever Yariel Rodríguez. This leaves the Blue Jays with 14 position players and 12 pitchers, which could in part be influenced by Bichette’s limitations.
Bichette took ground balls at second base earlier this week while the Blue Jays were still evaluating whether he’d be ready for the World Series, and given their preference to keep Andrés Giménez at shortstop and George Springer at DH, more arrows started to point in this direction. Bichette embraced it, too, and brought the idea to the Blue Jays himself. General manager Ross Atkins said Friday that this is just the plan for Game 1, though, and the Blue Jays will continue to evaluate from here.
Regardless of how the Blue Jays use Bichette on a game-to-game basis -- and it could change -- his best position is being in the lineup. A free agent at season’s end, this is Bichette’s chance to finish what he and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started together in Toronto.
Below is the roster: