Bo Bichette knows he's fighting against the odds at Blue Jays camp

From the outside looking in, the plan for Bo Bichette seems pretty transparent.

The shortstop thrived at Double-A last year, so the next logical port of call is Triple-A Buffalo. Even with Devon Travis going down with a knee injury and hurting the Blue Jays’ middle infield depth, they are in no rush to call on their blue-chip prospect. Instead, they’d like to see him excel at that level and bring him along slowly – possibly even suspiciously so – with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. serving as a likely template.

Bichette is not unaware of the forces at work around him, but as he works at big-league camp dwelling on them serves no purpose.

“I understand what’s going on here and the odds of me making the team,” he said appearing on a special episode of Digging in with J.P. Arencibia. “But there’s no reason for me to come in with a different attitude than to try to make the team.”

When he ascends to the big leagues is out of his control, but the impression he makes isn’t.

“I’m here to turn heads and make impressions. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Although Vladdy justifiably gobbled up the headlines last season, Bichette’s work in 2018 was eye-opening as well. While he was unable to replicate the video game numbers he posted in the low minors, hitting .286/.343/.453 in Double-A as a 20-year-old is plenty impressive.

Those numbers, as well as continued defensive development, had him rising or staying the same on Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and MLB Pipeline’s prospect lists where he ranks between 8-12 heading into the 2019 season.

At this point there aren’t many knocks on his game. He’s seeming more and more likely to stick at shortstop and his unorthodox swing has fewer and fewer doubters these days.

“The thing is it doesn’t matter what happens before you’re ready to hit. It doesn’t matter what your stance looks like. It doesn’t matter about any of that,” he says of his stroke. “I was fortunate that when I was signed the Blue Jays said they weren’t going to touch [my swing]. I was also fortunate enough to get off to a good start, I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t.”

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Much like Guerrero Jr., Bichette has Blue Jays fans hoping the future is now. Despite the fight he’s showing at spring training it will probably have to wait, though. The 2019 Blue Jays are actually more veteran-laden than many rebuilding teams, and the full youth wave probably isn’t coming until 2020.

That’s when things will get fun for Bichette, on and off the field, as he’s got a chance to break through with a group of players he’s been riding the bus with his whole pro career.

“I think what makes it better is the fact that they’re all good guys. It’s tough being around people every single day for six months, if they have any sort of thing that annoys you it’s tough to be around ‘em. They’re a bunch of good guys and we’re all super excited to be in the big leagues at some point.”

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