Blue Jays lose red-hot Bichette (left knee) to 10-day IL

TORONTO -- The Blue Jays have placed Bo Bichette on the 10-day IL with a left knee sprain, a major blow with just 19 games left in a tight race for the American League East title.

Bichette injured his knee Saturday in New York on a hard collision at home plate with Yankees catcher Austin Wells. Bichette made a hard, feet-first slide into home but collided knee-on-knee with Wells’ shin protectors.

In the moment, it looked serious, with Bichette hobbling off the field in clear pain. The game was immediately put into a one-hour, 48-minute rain delay following that play at the plate, though, and Bichette was able to finish the game when play resumed. He’d received some serious cuts up his left shin, manager John Schneider said following the game, but X-rays came back clean and the initial diagnosis was optimistic.

Bichette felt more of that soreness in his knee Sunday, then again on Monday, which ultimately led to the MRI that revealed the sprain. Bichette is “not going to do anything this week,” according to Schneider, and while the club is optimistic that its star shortstop will return for the stretch run in September, the manager didn’t want to put a timeline on anything just yet.

“It sucks. Any time of year, to lose a guy who’s hitting in the middle of your order and playing short, it sucks,” Schneider said. “Hopefully, he can get back as soon as he can. Again, I don’t want to say, ‘Holy [crap], there’s a dark cloud over us right now.’ You’ve got to continue to move on.”

The Blue Jays have called up Joey Loperfido from Triple-A Buffalo to take Bichette’s spot on the roster. While we could see Loperfido in the outfield against certain right-handed pitching, shortstop will now be left to Ernie Clement and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whom the Blue Jays claimed off waivers from the Pirates just more than a week ago.

There’s no replacing Bichette, though, one of the hottest hitters in baseball who has been coming through in some big spots for the Blue Jays lately. Going back to the beginning of July, Bichette is batting .372 with a .996 OPS, and his season-long average of .311 puts him behind only the A’s Jacob Wilson (.315) and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (.321) in the race for the AL batting title. This is a contract year for Bichette, too, and he’ll be one of the hottest names on the market come November.

There won’t be one savior here. There’s no top prospect waiting in Triple-A to take over. Bit by bit, the Blue Jays need to make up for this massive absence over the next eight days, at the very least.

“It has to be everyone,” Schneider said. “I was thinking about it, who has to step up, but it has to be everyone. That’s what we’ve done all year. It’s not about one guy trying harder or doing more. It will take all 14 of them. He’s obviously a big part of our team, so everybody has to do their thing.”

The timing couldn’t be worse, obviously. The Blue Jays (82-61) hold a two-game lead (and the tiebreaker) over the Yankees (80-63) in the AL East, and this week’s series against the Astros has major implications, too. Toronto still holds the best record in the AL, just ahead of the Tigers (82-62), but Houston (78-66) still leads the AL West and is trying to push its way into the top two spots, which gives teams a bye past the Wild Card round and straight to the AL Division Series.

It’s incredibly important for the Blue Jays to hold onto one of those top two spots, especially when you consider how the Wild Card Series has treated them, with 0-2 duds in 2020, ‘22 and ‘23.

For fans who have been with the Blue Jays since the 1980s, this will bring back some unwelcome memories of the ‘87 series. On Sept. 24, the Tigers’ Bill Madlock slid into second base and caused shortstop Tony Fernandez to fall and break his elbow. Toronto then went on to lose its last seven games of the season and miss the postseason. How it all fell apart for that 96-win team still brings a grimace to the face of longtime fans the moment it’s mentioned.

The Blue Jays have more runway than that, though, and far more hope that Bichette can return. If this team wants to take a run at its first World Series since 1993, it needs its star shortstop.