Why Bo Bichette, not Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is the face of the Blue Jays

TORONTO – In a season in which the Blue Jays’ offence has ebbed and flowed, Bo Bichette has been a constant. A torpedo atop the order, the 25-year-old has hacked and slashed his way to a career-best campaign.

Bichette leads all of baseball in hits (89) and total bases (144), while his .331 batting average is the best in the American League. We can gush about Bichette's individual offensive numbers, most of which lead Toronto’s roster, but there are deeper levels to his excellence.

Peel back a layer, and you’ll learn why Bichette has always been a star. He’s not just a workaholic on the field or a quiet, trustworthy teammate; he’s something more. Blue Jays fans are witnessing the ascension of a bona fide franchise player.

That’s a snazzy buzzword, but what, in practice, does it mean to be a franchise player?

"A franchise player is a guy that's making an impact on the field and in the clubhouse and around the city," Jays manager John Schneider said. "So I think that we have a few of those guys that can check those boxes, but [Bichette], he's in that category right now."

Indeed, the Blue Jays are fortunate. Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alek Manoah (before his untimely decline) are all budding superstars, but very few major-league hitters have Bichette’s measure of baseball acumen pumping through their veins.

Bichette’s swing propels his greatness, and it’s a thing of beauty. With lightning-fast hands and a big leg kick, the Blue Jays shortstop can mash any pitch in the zone toward any part of the ballpark. His teammates, including Kevin Kiermaier, are in complete awe.

"The stuff that he knows, the knowledge of hitting, it is unreal, and what he does in that batter's box speaks for itself," Kiermaier said. "He is the best hitter I've ever seen."

That’s some high praise coming from an 11-year MLB veteran. Kiermaier said he and Matt Chapman call Bichette "a gangster" at the plate, and the young slugger sharpens that ice-cold mentality hours before the game begins.

It starts at 2 or 3 p.m. with tee work, cuts in the cages and on-field batting practice. As teammate Whit Merrifeld put it, mechanics are the last thing on Bichette’s mind. His approach is everything, and the physical aspects of his prep are all buttoned up hours before Bichette takes his first stroll to the plate.

Hitting comes naturally, so what about the defence? Franchise players need to hold their own on both sides of the ball. Bichette isn’t typically considered strong defensively (minus-17 career OAA), but through sheer will, that notion is changing.

Bichette made 23 errors a season ago, putting him second in all of baseball. Santiago Espinal, one of Bichette’s closest friends on the club, said the pair don’t talk about that bumpy defensive season; it’s all in the past. Instead, Bichette approaches each rep — the next rep — as seriously as possible.

"If he makes an error, even in practice, he’ll get mad," Espinal said.

Bichette gets mad?

"It's normal for us to get mad," Espinal continued. "But when he gets mad, he actually processes through the whole of why he did whatever he did."

There it is. After a mistake in the infield, when the anger subsides, Bichette will use the resources around him — Chapman, Espinal and fielding coach Luis Rivera — to sort out exactly why he failed.

Bichette has committed just five errors this year and produced a perfectly average 0 OAA. That’s a win. And it’s also the kind of analytical progress that, when complemented by visual improvements, suggests that Bichette is a long-term shortstop. Under that lens, the mash-up of the superhuman offence and league-average defence makes Bichette one of baseball’s best players.

The Blue Jays would be wise to tender Bichette a long-term extension. The shortstop, as is his right, is rigid in extension talks, so the sitdowns don’t have to happen right this instant. But if Bichette’s red-hot start has made anything clear, it’s that Toronto needs him as the future face of this franchise — yes, even more so than Guerrero.

Guerrero is a star in his own right, though his shine has faded since a near-MVP 2021 season, and in a perfect world, the Blue Jays would keep both stars. With Toronto’s future financial commitments, though, that might not be feasible.

Since the start of 2022, Bichette has beaten Guerrero in OPS (.827 vs .816), wRC+ (134 vs 130) and bWAR (6.9 vs 5.1). The picture is becoming clearer and clearer. Bichette is Toronto’s newest promised prince, and at 25 years old, he’s still getting better.

"Bo is just in a category of his own," Kiermaier said. "He's different. He's a frickin’ absolute hit machine. And if I was the front office member, he'd be a guy where I'd be saying, ‘Hey, we're gonna keep this guy around as long as possible.’”