TORONTO -- The Blue Jays have extended a qualifying offer to Bo Bichette, and now that the formalities are out of the way, the real fun begins.
Bichette will surely decline the $22.025 million qualifying offer and hit free agency, where he’ll be one of the top players available this winter. If he signs elsewhere, the Blue Jays would receive Draft compensation, but teams fresh off a run to the World Series don’t care about Draft compensation. They care about stars, and Bichette is exactly that.
This is where the business of baseball creeps in, and it all comes so suddenly. Drafted out of high school in 2016, Bichette came up alongside Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as one of this organization’s next great hopes. All along, he’s made it clear that he wants to play the rest of career in Toronto, chasing championships alongside his friend and co-star Guerrero.
“I said I’ve wanted to be here from the beginning,” Bichette said again after the Game 7 loss.
This is also the point where a front office and player begin their awkward dance of language. Speaking Thursday at Rogers Centre, president and CEO Mark Shapiro was followed by GM Ross Atkins, both of whom were careful to discuss Bichette’s contributions to the Blue Jays over parts of seven MLB seasons without closing any doors or striking the wrong notes.
“He’s been a special part of this organization and a special part of building towards this, and he certainly makes our team better,” Shapiro said.
Baseball is full of players who could make the Blue Jays better, though. It matters more with Bichette because he’s been here all along, from a top prospect to the man who just hit a three-run shot off Shohei Ohtani in Game 7 of the World Series in Toronto.
One of the great tragedies in Blue Jays history is how that home run will be remembered. It should have lived forever, mentioned a breath behind Joe Carter’s walk-off in 1993 as the second-biggest moment in the history of this franchise. It’s still awfully close and will be easier to immortalize when the sting of that loss wears off, but it was still a defining moment for Bichette, strutting out of the box on his one good leg after taking the greatest player on the planet deep.
For a decade, Bichette had been working towards that moment. The Blue Jays would be losing more than just a ballplayer, they’d be losing the memories and hope he represented.
“As I reflected on his ability, toughness and desire to be on the field in the condition he was in during the postseason and his ability to still provide some of the most important [moments] of the World Series, that was only an exclamation point on what’s been an unbelievable career here,” Shapiro said. “In fact, I can remember him at his pre-Draft workout. My son was shagging fly balls and his dad was throwing BP to him with our scouting staff on Field 1 in Florida. I can remember him back to being a high-school senior.”
That 2016 Draft was Atkins’ first at the helm in Toronto after he’d been hired as GM. The Blue Jays played it safer in the first round, selecting college righty T.J. Zeuch, then went back to the NCAA ranks a few picks ahead of Bichette for outfielder J.B. Woodman. The Bichette pick -- No. 66 overall -- was a risky swing on upside at the time, but it turned out to be one of this organization’s best picks in decades.
“Bo has already had a massive impact on this organization, our ability to win games and the fan base,” Atkins said. “It’s really incredible, his performance, and to think about what he accomplished in the playoffs. I don’t want to exaggerate, but he was certainly not at 100%. Not having full strength, not being at 100% agility and mobility and to still have that level of impact offensively -- and make the plays defensively -- speaks to the competitor and athlete he is.”
All of this is nice, but sentimentality doesn’t go far at the negotiating table. Consider this a tiebreaker for the Blue Jays. If Toronto and another club come to the same number and the same term, every indication from Bichette indicates that he’d prefer to stay in Toronto. Players rarely offer discounts during their one shot at cashing in, though, and the Blue Jays will need to speak with their wallet, not just their heart.
Two years ago, it was Ohtani. Last year, it was Guerrero. This winter, it’s all about Bichette.